What we experience as children and teenagers determines the success of our professional and personal lives, as they are what shape the character and personality we 'carry'. This is what the few scientists who have researched the matter have come to over the years. One such case was the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health Another is the book 'Leadership for Children'. If you are in the mood to learn more details, you can visit the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) website and look for the link on 'adverse childhood experiences'.
Or you can stay with us and read how Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a person who has been in the news for the last 24 hours, after the imposition of US sanctions on the S-400 missile systems, has grown up. That's why we thought of going back to his childhood, in an attempt to understand the 'phenomenon'. If anything, it's that since he was a child he always found a way to get what he wanted - even if he had to delete his friends or even himself.
He was born into a mixed family!
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was born (26/2/1954) in Kasımpaşa, part of the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, which according to what Muukrant.nl had written in October 2018 “is the least valuable piece of land , in Istanbul's Monolopy ".
Kasımpaşa is one of the oldest inhabited areas of Istanbul, with a strong maritime tradition that flourished after the Conquest (29/5/1453). In the 1950s and 1960s, the town was inhabited by dock workers and sailors. It changed its image at the beginning of the 21st century, when investments were made to build a new stadium, sports centre, swimming pool, library and social leisure facilities. Let me tell you that the name of Kasımpaşa Spor Kulübü's stadium is what you imagine (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Stadium).
Incidentally, the Sultan's family had moved to Kasımpaşa from Güneysu in the Rize district (northeast of the country, on the east coast of the Black Sea), where his father, Ahmet, worked as a coast guard. His mother, Tensile, was involved in the education of the family's five children. It wasn't all hers. Besides Recep, she had a boy (Mustafa) and a girl (Vesile) with Ahmet. The pillar of the house had become a father twice more (to Mehmet and Hasan), from his first marriage (to Havuli).
Inside Over has written that his father was strict, very religious and had an issue with managing his anger. When Rezep was 6 years old, he had said a bad word. He made him hang from the ceiling by his arms until he felt them 'get cut off'.
The family returned to this conservative city when Erdogan was a baby. You will allow me to tell you two things about Rize, because you will need them:the first name of the area was Lazistan. The Lazoi are a tribe that lives in the coastal areas of the Black Sea, belonging to Turkey and Georgia. For more information and clarifications, you can click on the text of Kostas Fotiadis, professor of Modern History. Otherwise hold that the Kemalists were the ones who banned the use of Lazistan and imposed Rize.
I told you all this to get to “my family is from Georgia, immigrated from Batumi (second largest city of the country) to Rize ” which Erdogan is said to have said when he was still unknown. He denied this in a television appearance on NTV in 2014, when he commented “you won't believe what you've heard about me. They said I'm Georgian and even worse things. They have called me Armenian. But I am a Turk ".
Rize has identified it as his spiritual home and in 2015 unveiled the renovated massive Qibla Mountain Mosque that had existed since the 1800s but which he deified, through work he ordered to begin in 2013 and watched closely. He noted that he did not allow the work to stop in the winter, with the consequence that the lives of three workers who he rescued - with his helicopter - were at risk.
Became Imam Beckenbauer
When he was 13, his father decided for the family to return to Istanbul, so that they could live a little better - since by then even the basics were in demand. Erdoğan took to the streets - which were not exactly safe for a small child - in order to 'get' pocket money, as the 2.5 Turkish liras - an amount less than one dollar - a week he received from his family, was not spitting out. It cost him a lot that he wanted to buy a bicycle, but he couldn't. He decided to do something about it.
He did everything from selling homemade lemonade, buying cheap postcards and selling them at higher prices, supplying thirsty drivers on the City's ever-crowded streets with water, to selling pretzels on a tricycle, in which had also put up a shop window to present its products. If he had more time at his disposal (for example, on weekends) he would go to the fields and collect tea and hazelnuts. When he wasn't at school or at work, he played soccer. It had developed into a passion. His teammates called him 'Imam Beckenbauer' . A 16-year-old on the courts has been 'closed'. He even joined semi-amateur teams. Urban legend has it that Fenerbahce wanted him, but his father wouldn't let him go.
Classmate with other co-founders of the AKP party
He 'got' his secondary education at the İmam Hatip school, which belonged to the program of the Ottoman empire with those that would 'produce good Muslims', they would train those who would be hired as imams by the government. Note:she didn't want him to go there. This was decided by his father, as he was not happy with his grades - which had been affected by the various jobs Redzep did, but that mattered little.
After the coup d'état of 1960 and the new constitution of 1961, graduates could enter universities only if they 'passed' the directions 'given' by the popular schools. This was changed by Suleiman Demirel, in his first term as prime minister, while after the coup of 1971 the educational institutions that belonged to the Imam Hatip program became professional again, with the aim of training priests and officials.
They increased by 230 within a four-year period, with students reaching 48,895 in 1974 (and 200,300 in 1980). For the record, women were first admitted in 1976. The increase in the number of institutions is attributed to the participation of the National Salvation Party in a series of alliances with the Nationalist Front governments.
The lessons Erdogan had in his program included the study of the Koran, the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the Arabic language. His performance was such that his classmates called him 'the teacher of Islam'.
Incidentally, he was a classmate with other founders of the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP or 'Justice and Development Party'). Among them was Fethullah Gülen, whom he accused in 2016 of being responsible for the 'coup attempt'.
At 15, he appeared for the first time at a meeting of the nationalist student group that sought to raise conservative youth to counter the rise of the leftist movement in Turkey (we are in the Cold War era). Among the phenomena that had arisen were battles between the two sides in the streets and murders of students. Erdogan stood out for his oratorical skills, as he developed a cult of public speaking. He 'worked' them through reading and research and years later he revealed that his first experience helped him gain the courage to speak in front of people. He then organized a youth movement for the (Islamic) National Salvation Party in Istanbul and was preferred as its president. He held the post from 1976 (all 22) to 1980.
The unshaven mustache
He graduated from high school in 1973. He wanted to continue with higher studies at Ankara's Mekteb-i-Mülkiye (Turkey's oldest institution of social studies and known for its political science department), but it did not accept İmam Hatip graduates. He moved on to the next option which was the public Eyüp High.
In his biography he has written that he studied Business Administration at Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences at Marmara University (1981). Many were quick to deny the information that he has degrees and present the irregularities that existed as evidence. Like one degree missing key signatures while another had a date when the institution didn't exist.
At the University he met Necmettin Erbakan, then a young successful mechanical engineer and later founder of the National Salvation Party and the first Islamic prime minister. He made him his mentor. They maintained their excellent relationship until 2001, when our current protagonist founded his own party. In the relevant announcement, he said that he is also leaving his Islamic past behind. The National Salvation Party (which had army chiefs as members) won 48 seats in the 1973 elections and formed a government together with the Republican Turkish Party. This alliance decided the invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
Lest I forget, he never stopped working to earn the money he needed to live. Until 1980, he served as a consultant and high-ranking private enterprise that "ended" the military coup of 1980 - when the enemy was not Islamism (became a friend), but communism.
This found him working at the 'headquarters' of public transport. His boss was a retired colonel who had demanded that he shave off his moustache. He refused and was out of a job. In 1982 he served his military service and after his discharge he redefined the goal he had for his life. For starters, he became a member of the newly formed Prosperity Party. Two years later (1985) he was preferred as its head, in Istanbul and a member of the Central Executive Committee.
The love that made him sick
He met Emine Gülbaran (who, by the way, went to a girls' school with a similar mindset to Erdogan's - she didn't graduate) at the National Turkish Students Union - where she also learned the joy of speaking to people. A mutual acquaintance introduced them, they became a couple and decided to get married. Except that Recep's father refused to give his permission, because he preferred a bride from Rize. He went on a hunger strike, got sick and got the OK. The wedding took place on 4/2 of 1978.
When asked by a journalist, in 1996, about his relationship with his wife, he said 'I have been married for 18 years, but I have never fallen in love'. This evolved in 2013 into “I'm absolutely in love with my wife. I fell in love with her at first sight. It was like an electric shock. Love means losing yourself to the other and that's what Ifelt ".
Of Arab descent, Emine is said to be the reason women were allowed into Turkey's political scene. Since her husband became the Mayor of Istanbul (1994, to solve chronic problems of the city, such as the renewal of the water supply network and the one with the garbage - while paying off most of the debt left by the previous ones, which reached 2 billion dollars ), she deals with social issues - which obviously do not provoke. Until June 2020 it had never evoked popular sentiment. That changed because of an Hermès bag she was wearing in June 2020 - worth €42,000.
The couple had four children. Two daughters and two sons. First-born Ahmet Burak is a billionaire businessman, owner of at least 6 ships, although his company does not even have a website. He does not live in Turkey and every time his name appears on social media, it disappears within a split second. He began to avoid the public eye in 1998 when he hit classical singer Sevin Tanürek with his car, who succumbed to her injuries '.
The 'cleaning' of the criminal record
On December 12, 1997, in a public speech, he read an Islamic poem from a book recommended by the Ministry of Education and said, among other things, that "the mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers". He was sentenced to 10 months in prison (released after 4), for religious hate speech. Since he had "stained" his criminal record, according to the laws he could not "hold" or claim any office in any election or become a party leader. Fatefully, somewhere there, his term as Mayor ended. Parliament made everything possible when in 2001 it 'passed' an amendment allowing the Sultan to continue his political activity.
He tried to change course, to renounce the extreme Islamic views he had espoused in the past and to appear the friend-Western politician. You wouldn't say this project was a huge success (he didn't speak any other language than Turkish and knew very little about what was happening outside the borders). Plus “he knows what will happen if he crosses the line. If he becomes Prime Minister one day the army will wait to see his actions first and then decide ” he returned to what he knew best, with the creation of the AKP, the first appearance in the elections in 2002 (of the party, because he was still waiting for the Parliament to change its status), the great comeback of 2003, the public preference and the self-reliance government. On 3/15/2003 he became Prime Minister, among the first decisions were the monetary reform, the fight against corruption, the creation of essential infrastructure for the people and their service and the limitation of freedom of speech. The sequel I assume you remember.
By order of the same, his life was made into a movie. He has the title 'Reis' ('Chief'). Producer Ali Avci had stated that "these days you see characters of world cinema, like Spiderman or Superman, who have never existed, except on T-shirts or in books. We have our own heroes who are alive. The production started with the question 'how did they become heroes?' The film cost $8,000,000.