Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current President of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as Prime Minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. Coming from an Islamist political background and self-describing as a conservative democrat, he has promoted socially conservative and populist policies during his administration. Reforms made in the early years of Erdoğan’s tenure as prime minister granted Turkey the start of EU membership negotiations.
Furthermore, Turkey experienced an economic recovery from the economic crisis of 2001 and saw investments in infrastructure including roads, airports, and a high-speed train network. He also won two successful constitutional referendums in 2007 and 2010. Erdoğan’s foreign policy has been described as Neo-Ottoman and has led to the Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War, with its focus on preventing the Syrian Democratic Forces from gaining ground on the Syria-Turkey border during the Syrian Civil War.
In the more recent years of Erdoğan’s rule, Turkey has experienced democratic backsliding and corruption. Starting with the anti-government protests in 2013, his government imposed growing censorship on the press and social media, temporarily restricting access to sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Wikipedia. This stalled negotiations related to Turkey’s EU membership. A US$100 billion corruption scandal in 2013 led to the arrests of Erdoğan’s close allies, and incriminated Erdoğan.
After 11 years as head of government (Prime Minister), Erdoğan decided to run for president in 2014. At the time, the presidency was a somewhat ceremonial function. Following the 2014 elections, Erdoğan became the first popularly elected president of Turkey. Erdoğan’s rule has been marked with increasing authoritarianism, expansionism, censorship and banning of parties or dissent.
Erdoğan supported the 2017 referendum which changed Turkey’s parliamentary system into a presidential system, thus setting for the first time in Turkish history a term limit for the head of government (two full five-year terms). This new system of government formally came into place after the 2018 general election, where Erdoğan became an executive president.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has an estimated net worth of $500 million.
| Net Worth: | $500 Million |
| Date of birth: | February 26, 1954 |
| Country: | Turkey |
| Source of wealth: | President of Turkey |
