Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the 12th president of Turkey. Apart from Abdullah Gul, he is the only president with an Islamic background and politics. The fight for semi-professional footballer at Imam Hatip School, Istanbul to the presidential palace was not a walk on the moon. An ardent supporter of Islamic values in a country forcefully changed to secularism, he was elected the mayor of Istanbul in 1994. For many, this was the turning point they had wished to see in their lifetimes. Amidst sacrilegious westernized youth that Young Turks had spawned out of a weak Ottoman empire, the religious population of the country was ecstatic.
During my visit to Istanbul many years ago I got to meet with a wide range of people from different walks of life ranging from ultra religious to hardcore secularists. The tensions were high but one could not miss the symbiotic coexistence of these two even though a very aloof one. This was not easily earned in anyways. This maverick mayor of Istanbul during his mayorship was arrest for inciting religious violence for saying something that wouldn’t be hardly noticeable in any other Muslim country. A freedom that for most of us is taken for granted. In a political procession, he read the famous poem of Ziya Goklap, a well-known nationalist which got him the handcuffs, which he happily embraced as the Jewel of Freedom fighters. Very similar to Hasta Siempre by Carlos Puebla, the farewell poem for Che Guevera. His crime was the fact that he was Muslim. Poem goes like this:
“Our minarets are our bayonets, Our domes are our helmets,
Our mosques are our barracks. We will put a final end to ethnic segregation.
No one can ever intimidate us.
If the skies and the ground were to open against us.
If floods and volcanoes were to burst, We will not turn from our mission.
My reference is Islam. If I am not able to speak of this, What is the use of living?”
On Friday, the day he was arrested he first went to the tomb of Hazrat Ayub Ansari RA and animal sacrifice was made. Not surprisingly a metaphor quite similar to his own sacrifice for his views in a godless society. Later he prayed Friday prayers among masses and left for the prison. Then 46-old leader was escorted by a 2000-car envoy to Pinarhisar Prison, among accolades and tears. The saga, however, was only beginning. In a valedictory tone, he told the press.
“This is not a farewell. As I have always said, I hope it is just a pause in a series of songs to be finished.”
Refah Partisi, The Islamic welfare party who gave him the platform to become a mayor was banned in the aftermath. Erdogan’s right hand and confidant Abdullah Gul was to be the torch bearer after him. Islamic wave had spread and the Turkish nation had made up its mind. Abdullah Gul contested the election on behalf of Erdogan and won a landslide victory against the seculars. Once in power, he annulled the banned against Erdogan and the hero returns from behind the bars to change the course of Turkish history. Subsequent turn of events showed the world how repressing a nation based on its religion, does the opposite of it. In 2003, elections Erdogan became the Prime Minister winning the seat from the very place he was alleged to have given the ‘inciting’ speech. Siirt.
The ground was still marshes for him. The same year a secular military coup took place called Operation Sledgehammer. Large-scale arrests of the alleged took place which opposition called Cemmat-influenced prosecution of opponents. After a slow and protracted process in 2015, all 236 suspects were released based on fake evidence and position that secularists have since used to augment their resistance against the AKP.
His economic and social policies have been up for discussion and criticism for a long time now. His repeated success in elections, however, tell us a different story. Even if it is a pure religious victory, then clearly Turkey has made its choice. Erdogan’s party has brought legislation against restriction of alcohol consumption, spoken against the secular constitution, asked to create Ottoman Barracks in Gezi Park in Istanbul and has made changes to the judicial and political structure. On June 17th this year a British band Radiohead made a performance in the holy month of Ramadan in a record shop in Istanbul. Environment wreaked with weed, alcohol and bohemian vulgarity. Duly aggravated by this irreverence which would invoke the same response in any other Muslim country, a group charged and violent fights began. Erdogan blamed both of the groups in a very diplomatic appeasing tone which many argue was quite a bend towards secular side given the provocation they had made.
A similar event happened recently that was supported by the western world at the gay pride parade in Istanbul. It is utterly a nonsense idea by any stretch of the imagination to have a gay parade in a Muslim country no matter how secularized it is. A different result can’t be expected in even Christian areas of the secular US. Mayor of Istanbul banned the parade rightly and clashes began between police and the group that defied the ban and western media portrayed it as if it’s the worst human rights abuse after Armenian genocide, which their own historians don’t agree on. The Recent tirade against Erdogan is his lack of tolerance against insults to him, which by the constitution is forbidden. German anchor’s insulting poem became a huge issue in the west. It is obviously very hard to explain to the western world the culture of respect, honor, and authority. A so-called civilized society that has given up all traces of morality more or less. A big issue in Muslim World, though.
His charisma and rhetoric have made him a beacon of hope for many oppressed based on their religion. Not many know how he himself had been discriminated against the most. In 2000 secular President Ahmed Necdet Sezer was elected to office, known for his opposition of headscarves for women. At the reception ceremony despite knowing that Erdogan and Abdullah Gul’s wife wore head scarf he banned the headscarves. Consequently, Hayrunissa Gul and Emine Erdogan did not join the reception, an obvious insult to your political opponents and quite a cheap one to be fair. Erdogan later said later that he has suffered a lot at the hands of Sezer, still without victimizing him for what he has done.
Erdogan certainly has become a household name. Despite his fallout with Muhammed Fethullah Gülen and many more criticisms that can be made against him, he certainly has won over Turkish and Muslim hearts around the world. Maybe with the little help of a zealous camera team and philanthropic diplomacy but the verdict is out and he truly stands high among others. Some say that he is the true adherent of famous Turkish theologian and saint Said Bediuzzaman Nursi, who wrote the famous Risala Noor to educate the secularizing Turkish society. His veneration was so big that Turkish military dug him from his grave and buried him to an unknown place out of fear of public reverence. Some of his policies, however, surprise his Muslim electorate e.g. diplomatic relations with Israel and eagerness to join EU. How his government will deal with secular undercurrents and a changing global opinion against Islamic world is yet to be seen.
