Profile: Recep Tayyip Erdogan
In power since 2002, Erdogan has now taken part in 14 elections including two presidential votes, and won them all.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan overcame the toughest challenge of his 15-year rule with a victory in the high-stakes snap elections that will give him sweeping new powers to lead the country.
The Supreme Election Council (YSK) declared Erdogan the winner early on Monday, hours after he declared victory based on unofficial results.
For Erdogan, installing an executive presidency has been his years-long ambition and he staked his career on it by calling the elections 18 months early.
Erdogan has overseen historic change in Turkey since his ruling party first came to power in 2002 after years of secular domination. But critics have accused him of trampling on civil liberties and of autocratic behaviour.
The president has for the last two years ruled under a state of emergency imposed in the wake of the 2016 failed coup, with tens of thousands arrested in an unprecedented crackdown, which cranked up tensions with the West.
Erdogan has never lost an election and has been in power since 2003, initially as prime minister, then as president from 2014.
At 64, Erdogan has in his political career overcome a stint in prison, mass protests and even a bloody coup attempt to emerge as Turkey's uncontested leader.
He has freed up constraints on religion in the officially secular but overwhelmingly Muslim state, overseen a vast programme of infrastructure building he calls his "crazy projects" and implemented a more assertive foreign policy.
For supporters, Erdogan gives a voice to Turkey's Muslim majority, has brought new levels of economic prosperity and commands respect on the international stage.
But detractors argue that Erdogan is taking Turkey on a dangerous path to authoritarianism reminiscent of the Ottoman Sultans.
Political rise
Erdogan's AK Party was formed by a breakaway group of the Virtue Party, which was shut down by the courts in 2001 due to its "anti-secular" activities.
He was 13 when his father decided to move to Istanbul, in the hope of giving his five children a better upbringing.Erdogan was born in 1954, the son of a coastguard from the city of Rize on Turkey's Black Sea coast.
As a teenager, he sold lemonade and sesame buns (simit) on the streets of Istanbul's rougher districts to earn extra money.
He attended an Islamic school before obtaining a degree in management from Istanbul's Marmara University in 1981 - and playing professional football.
While at university, he met Necmettin Erbakan - who went on to become the country's first Islamist prime minister.
Erdogan entered politics at a very young age. During high school in the early 1970s, he was elected chairman of the National Salvation Party Istanbul Youth Organisation.
After the 1980 military coup, Erdogan followed most of Erbakan's followers into the Welfare Party. He became a district chair in 1984 before advancing to chair of the Istanbul city branch. He was elected to parliament in 1991, but barred from taking his seat.
During his tenure, he developed a new organisational structure for the Istanbul Branch, which became a model for other political parties.
One of his most important initiatives, while serving in Istanbul Branch, was strengthening female participation in politics. This successful structure was credited with placing the Welfare Party in the first place in subsequent elections.
Erdogan's political rise within the Welfare Party continued in 1994, when he became the mayor of Istanbul.
Many feared he would impose Islamic law. However, he proved to be pragmatic in office as mayor.
Imprisonment as mayor
Although his critics admitted that he helped make Istanbul cleaner and greener, a decision to ban alcohol in city cafes angered secularists.
He also won admiration from the many who felt he was not corrupt - unlike many other Turkish politicians.
His background and commitment to Islamic values also appealed to devout Muslim Turks.
However, he was given a 10-month prison sentence (of which he served four) for reading an Islamic poem in Siirt in December 1997.
The poem included the lines, "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers..." and was considered a violation of Kemalism by the secular judiciary.
With the conviction, Erdogan was forced to give up his mayoral position. The conviction also stipulated a political ban, which prevented him from participating in parliamentary elections.
The AK Party won the 2002 elections under Erdogan's leadership, and consolidated its political dominance in local elections in 2004, becoming the biggest party in 12 out of 16 metropolitan municipalities.
Undefeated
In 2007, the party won again in parliamentary elections, but its share of the vote slipped to 39 per cent in 2009 local elections, attributed by analysts to a dip in Turkey's economic fortunes during the global economic crisis.
In 2014, he was elected as president before seeking another term in office with more expanded powers this year.In 2011, Erdogan's party won 327 seats in parliament, and picked him as prime minister making him the only prime minister to win in three consecutive elections.
Known to his inner circle as "beyefendi" (sir) and to admirers as "reis" (the chief), Erdogan prides himself on being able to woo doubters with his indefatigable campaigning.
His only setback - so far - came in June 2015 elections when the AK Party won the most votes but lost its overall majority for the first time.
But Erdogan swatted away the prospect of a coalition, saying such governments belonged to the days of "old Turkey". He called new elections in November 2015 where the party's majority was restored.
Erdogan pressed on with an April 2017 referendum on a new constitution that abolishes the office of prime minister and that critics said resembled an autocracy, but eked out a relatively narrow win.
In one and a half decades since his ruling party came to power, Erdogan has now taken part in 14 elections - six legislative polls, three referenda, three local elections and two presidential votes - and won them all.
"Now is the time to work, set aside the tensions from the election period and focus on the country's future," Erdogan declared in his victory speech after he was re-elected.
courtesy : aljazeera.com
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Industrialist out on bail in Morbi bridge collapse case honoured; kin of victims upset
Morbi, Nov 16: Industrialist Jaysukh Patel, the main accused in the 2022 Gujarat suspension bridge collapse that claimed 135 lives, received criticism after he was felicitated at an event organised by the Patidar community in Morbi district.
While the victims’ kin expressed anguish over the event, the organisers said that Patel, currently out on bail, was honoured in his capacity as the son of late OR Patel, a philanthropist who founded the Ajanta Group.
Patel was weighed in “modak” (sweet dumpling) on a scale at the function organised by Kadva Patidar Kanya Kelavani Mandal on the outskirts of Morbi town on Friday to mark the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ of the Uma Sanskardham temple.
The modak will be packed in 60,000 boxes and distributed among Patidar families, the organisers said.
“It is a matter of sadness for us to see the main accused in the Morbi suspension bridge collapse being honoured like that,” said Narendra Parmar, a member of the association representing victims and their families.
A court recently relaxed Patel’s bail condition barring him from entering the Morbi district, making it possible for him to attend the event.
His firm Oreva Group was responsible for the operation and maintenance of a British-era suspension bridge on river Machchhu in Morbi town that collapsed on October 30, 2022, killing 135 persons, including women and children, and injuring 56 others.
“I learnt about Patel’s felicitation through a news report and felt sad. He was barred from entering Morbi but secured the court’s permission for the event. The incident and losing a child is not something one forgets in his lifetime,” said Parmar, whose 10-year-old daughter was killed in the tragedy.
AK Patel, a member of the organisation that held the programme, said they honoured Jaysukh Patel to pay respects to his late father OR Patel, who founded the Ajanta Group, describing him as “the father of wall clocks”.
“We decided to felicitate Jaysukh Patel and his brothers at the event as a tribute to their father OR Patel’s service to society,” he said.
Former Congress MLA Lalit Kagathara said there was nothing wrong with Patel being honoured by his community, stressing that the industrialist’s family has made significant contributions to society through philanthropy.
“I have been saying that Jaysukh Patel is innocent. Morbi’s then collector and civic officials are responsible for the tragedy. Why an FIR was not registered against them? OR Patel was the ‘Bhishma Pitamah’ of the Patridar community and a philanthropist. There is nothing wrong with his son being honoured by the community," he said.
A total of ten persons, including Patel, two managers of his firm, two sub-contractors who had repaired the bridge, three security guards and two ticket booking clerks, were arrested on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and for endangering human life after the accident.
The Supreme Court on March 22, 2024, ordered Patel’s release and directed the trial court to frame his bail conditions. Among the bail conditions, Patel was barred from entering Morbi till the pendency of the trial.
Patel had moved the apex court after the Gujarat High Court in December last year rejected his regular bail plea.
