Turkey: Empire of Erdogan: Episode One

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Episode One

Turkey: Empire of Erdogan

BBC World News - Turkey: Empire of Erdogan, Episode One

Erdogan’s rise to power and how his initial popularity turns to mass protests against him.

How Erdogan becomes mayor of Istanbul, is imprisoned and banned from politics before fighting back as leader of a new party that wins the election.

Growing up at a time of chronic political turbulence in Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan joins an Islamist party and becomes hugely popular as mayor of Istanbul. In the 1990s, Turkish politics is bitterly divided on the question of religion and politics, so when the party Erdogan belongs to is shut down, Erdogan is sent to jail and banned from being an MP for life.

In prison, Erdogan plots an astonishing comeback, creating a new, more moderate Islamic party which sweeps to power in 2002. It overturns his ban from politics and makes him prime minister. 

In the early years in power, Erdogan transforms Turkey, gaining even more support at home and abroad. But he knows that to feel safe in power, he needs to deal with the all-powerful military. So, he forms an alliance with a cleric Fethullah Gulen, and together they plot to remove hundreds of high-ranking officers and judges, and replace them with followers of Gulen.   

After ten years of Erdogan’s rule, a demonstration about plans to redevelop Gezi Park in Istanbul becomes a massive protest movement that threatens to topple his government.

BBC World News

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Documentaries

The story of Turkish president Erdogan’s rise to power.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan - the most controversial president in modern Turkish history. What is behind his rise from prison to power - and his ruthless determination to stay at the top?

The inside story of Erdogan’s astonishing rise to power. With first-hand testimony from former president Abdullah Gul, former prime ministers, deputy PMs, party chiefs, opposition figures, analysts and journalists, this two-part series is a gripping and detailed account of the many battles Erdogan has had to fight along the way.

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