Guide to understand Erdogan’s 20 years in Turkey, ahead of key elections

In the 20 years that Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist AKP party have ruled, Turkey has become a major player in international politics, while freedoms and rights have deteriorated, and the economic situation has worsened after a “boom” initial.

This is how Turkey has changed in these two decades, which most polls believe could end this Sunday with the victory of a very heterogeneous opposition bloc led by Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, who promises to clean up the economy, restore rights and bring the country closer to values westerners.

Economy

After an initial decade of economic prosperity, driven by the world situation, domestic consumption and spending on public works have been marked in recent years by the depreciation of the lira and high inflation.

If in 2002, when the AKP won its first elections, the exchange rate against the dollar was 1 to 1.67, now it is close to 1 to 20 liras.

Unemployment has doubled to 22.5% and inflation, despite having eased in recent months, is close to 40%, fifteen points more than when Erdogan came to power.

freedoms and democracy

Turkey has dropped places in numerous international rankings, such as the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom ranking, which now places it in 165th place out of 180 countries, 16 less than the previous year and 26 less than in 2013.

In the Transparency International corruption index, it has lost 13 points and below countries like Kazakhstan or Belarus.

Political system

Erdogan won a referendum in 2017, with 51.4%, which established a presidential system by which the positions of head of state and government are merged and gave him enormous powers over the judiciary and numerous institutions.

Added to the absolute parliamentary majority, which the AKP maintains only thanks to its pact with a nationalist party, Erdogan is the president who has had the most power since the founder of modern Turkey in 1923, Mustafa Kemal “Atatürk”.

Religion

The secular State, where until 2013 female civil servants were prohibited from wearing the Islamist veil, has evolved towards a country where religion has more and more weight in daily life, for example in the control of alcohol consumption, which has become much more expensive .

If in 2013 the Prosecutor’s Office still accused the AKP of attacking secularism enshrined in the Constitution, Erdogan is now using as an electoral argument that the opposition leaders are infidels who do not pray.

Polarization

Turkey is a country traditionally divided into social “fault lines” ranging from urban and rural, secularism and Islamism, to different ethnic and religious groups.

However, those dividing lines have been melting into the dichotomy “for or against Erdogan”, assures EFE the political scientist Güven Gürkan Öztan.

This polarization has been growing since the massive protests of 2013, which were a reaction to the growing authoritarianism and the restriction of freedoms.

International

Under Erdogan, Turkey has increased its intervention in regional conflicts, presenting itself as an essential player but also generating numerous disputes with its neighbors.

Turkey has intervened in Syria, supporting Islamist groups opposed to the Bachar Al Asad regime; also in the civil war in Libya, where it has supported the Executive recognized by the UN against rebel troops backed by Russia or Egypt, and has supported Qatar in the face of the blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia.

Throughout these years, it has had diplomatic conflicts with the European Union, with Russia, with Egypt, with Israel and with Iraq.

kurds

Erdogan’s position towards the Kurds has hardened over the years.

Between 2009 and 2014, a “peace process” to end an armed conflict that in the last 40 years has claimed tens of thousands of deaths, since the PKK guerrillas began the armed struggle to achieve independence for Turkey’s approximately 20 million Kurds.

Although this claim is now limited to achieving more political and cultural rights, Erdogan is betting on a military solution, increasing attacks on guerrilla bases in Iraq.

In addition, pressure has increased against the leftist HDP party, which defends the rights of that minority, imprisoning its leaders and putting it on the brink of outlawing.

Source: EFE