The Turkish people disappointed their president, who had hoped to extend his rule for a third decade. With the results emerging, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan realized that the difficult test he faced on Sunday would soon be repeated in an event not witnessed in Turkey for nearly a century.
Below are the key moments in the life of the politician who significantly changed Turkey, leading its secular society toward his Islamic vision, making his state a regional military power, and using the judiciary to take strict measures against the opposition:
- March 1994: Erdoğan was elected mayor of Istanbul under the banner of the Welfare Party led by Islamic politician Necmettin Erbakan.
- April 1998: Erdoğan resigned from his position as mayor after a court sentenced him to prison for inciting religious discrimination due to a poem he recited in 1997 comparing mosques to barracks, minarets to bayonets, and believers to an army. He was imprisoned from March to July 1999.
- August 2001: Erdoğan founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and was elected its president.
- November 2002: The AKP won the elections with nearly 35% of the votes following the worst economic recession the country had experienced since the 1970s. The party pledged to distance itself from the mismanagement and stagnation of the previous era. Erdoğan was legally prohibited from serving as prime minister or entering parliament due to his prison sentence, but this decision was overturned in December.
- May 2003: Erdoğan became prime minister, beginning a decade of economic prosperity and improved living standards due to infrastructure boom and foreign investment. In his early days, Erdoğan visited Europe and the United States to promote his policies and advance Turkey's bid to join the European Union.
- October 2007: Turks approved in a referendum constitutional amendments allowing for direct elections for the presidency, a position that had been largely ceremonial until then.
- February 2008: The parliament passed an amendment drafted by the AKP and the Nationalist Action Party, lifting the ban on wearing headscarves in universities. The following month, the Constitutional Court considered a case regarding the separation of religion from state and narrowly ruled against dissolving the AKP, prohibiting Erdoğan and many other party members from political activity for five years.
- September 2010: Turks approved in another referendum judicial and economic reforms advocated by Erdoğan, which aimed to align the constitution with EU standards despite stalled EU accession efforts due to issues including the divided island of Cyprus, invaded by Turkey in 1974.
- May 2013: Objections to Erdoğan's plans to develop Gezi Park in Istanbul escalated into unprecedented nationwide protests against what opponents described as Erdoğan's authoritarianism. Erdoğan labeled the protesters as lawbreakers and saboteurs.
- December 2013: Erdoğan faced an extensive investigation into corruption involving senior officials, cabinet members, and the head of a state-owned bank. Erdoğan described the investigation as a "judicial coup" orchestrated by Fethullah Gülen, a cleric living in the U.S. who had been a former ally before a power struggle ensued between them.
- August 2014: AKP regulations barred Erdoğan from running for a fourth consecutive term as prime minister, and he won Turkey's first direct presidential elections in August, beginning to call for a new constitution to enhance the powers of the presidency.
- June 2015: The AKP failed to achieve a parliamentary majority for the first time in nearly two decades in the elections. However, after other parties failed to form a coalition government, the party regained a majority in early elections in November.
- July 2016: Rogue soldiers took tanks and helicopters, attacking state buildings and the parliament in a failed coup attempt that killed over 250 people. Erdoğan survived the coup attempt and claimed that the Gülen network orchestrated it. The attempt led to a state of emergency and mass arrests of those deemed to be affiliated with the network in both the military and civilian sectors. Human rights groups and Western allies later expressed concerns that Erdoğan exploited the coup attempt as a pretext for crushing the opposition.
- August 2016: Erdoğan authorized a major military operation in Syria, marking Turkey's first significant incursion into another country in decades. This operation was the first of four subsequent cross-border actions.
- April 2017: Turks approved in a referendum the establishment of an executive presidential system granting extensive powers to the president. Erdoğan led a strong campaign for the amendments, which he claimed would alleviate what he described as obstacles in parliamentary democracies.
- June 2018: Erdoğan won early presidential elections. The AKP and its nationalist allies from the Nationalist Action Party secured a parliamentary majority.
- August 2018: A series of economic crises and sharp declines in the value of the lira began following a currency crisis triggered by escalating tensions with the U.S. and other Western countries, alongside concerns about Erdoğan's unorthodox economic ideas and their impact on monetary policy.
- March 2019: Municipal elections resulted in Erdoğan's first electoral defeat in nearly two decades. Candidates from the opposition alliance, including the Republican People's Party and the Good Party, defeated AKP candidates in mayoral races in cities including Ankara and Istanbul.
- November 2019: Amid turmoil in Libya, Turkey signed two agreements with the Tripoli-based government for maritime boundary determination and military cooperation. Turkish intervention involving the deployment of military advisers, trainers, and Syrian fighters prevented eastern Libyan forces from seizing the capital.
- February 2020: Turkey and Russia came close to confrontation after dozens of Turkish soldiers were killed in airstrikes in Syria's Idlib region. Amid anger in Turkey over what it perceives as a lack of Western support and fears of a new wave of Syrian refugees, Ankara stated it would no longer prevent migrants from attempting to reach Europe, despite a 2016 agreement obligating Turkey to keep migrants on its territory.
- December 2020: The U.S. imposed sanctions on Turkey and its defense industry due to Ankara's purchase of Russian S-400 missile systems, further deteriorating relations between the two countries.
- 2021: Turkey began to repair strained relations with neighboring countries and regional states, including Armenia, Israel, Egypt, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. It increased its sales of advanced drones to Ukraine, Poland, and other nations.
- December 2021: The economy suffered a deeper currency crisis following an unusual series of interest rate cuts. The lira reached all-time lows, inflation soared to its highest levels during Erdoğan's rule, and public support for him declined.
- July 2022: Turkish and U.N. mediation efforts led to an agreement allowing for the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports, five months after the onset of the Russian invasion. Erdoğan's role was deemed critical in this context due to his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- February 2023: Turkey experienced the deadliest earthquake in its modern history, resulting in over 50,000 deaths in the southeast of the country. People in the affected areas complained about the slow response from authorities, particularly in the initial days, sparking criticism of the government. Erdoğan acknowledged that the response could have been faster and requested "the people's forgiveness for the shortcomings that occurred in the early days of the earthquake."
