It is often said the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a lucky man, befitting the Turkish adage of landing on four feet at the most unlikely moments.

He is now one of the most experienced politicians of not only Turkey, but the world. Last week, he broke the record of being the Turkish prime minister with the longest uninterrupted service. He thus owns the longest-serving prime minister label which once belonged to Adnan Menderes, who in 1960 was toppled by the first military coup in Turkey.

Erdogan has been the prime minister more than ten years. If his luck holds out and he is elected president next year, he is likely to serve as president for 10 years, until 2024. He has to be described as a master politician who crafted his own good fortune.

But, it is true that he had been lucky all along. In 1994, when he was not a well-known figure, he was elected mayor of Istanbul, which surprised many. In those days, Istanbul was suffering from a serious drought. Even rainmaker bombs were dropped, but still there was no rain. Many people laughed when Erdogan announced that he would pray for rain and solve the problem. Many people linked his self-confidence to his extremist religious characteristics and saw it as challenging Turkey’s secular political system.