Remembering Erdogan’s first campaign
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will mark 20 years in politics with the March 30 local elections while under criminal investigation.
To understand the critical developments occurring in Turkey today, it's crucial to consider the past. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will mark 20 years in politics with the coming local elections on March 30. When the Islamist Welfare Party (RP) scored a historic success on March 27, 1994 topping the polls in 28 provinces including in the capital Ankara, Erdogan was elected for the first time into office as the mayor of Istanbul.
The RP promised to close down dozens of unlicensed bars and restaurants serving alcohol that had operated with impunity for years in Beyoglu, on the European side. As the new mayor, Erdogan also announced plans for a large mosque and Islamic study center in Taksim Square as part of what he called the “cultural cleansing” of Beyoglu.
That 1994 plan is quite similar to his project of building an Ottoman Artillery Barracks and a mosque at Taksim Square, which triggered massive protests in late May and early June 2013. And there's continued talk about further restricting alcohol licenses for restaurants and bars in Beyoglu. In fact, there is nothing new in what Erdogan says or does today — except that he's now trying to survive a massive criminal investigation bringing him and his family directly in the spotlight of a corruption and bribery scandal.
Including the 1994 election campaign promises, Erdogan has been talking about forming a “just order.” His concept of political Islam considers secularism — or, in his own words, "the old Turkey" — to be a Western-style governance that deprives people of their religion and Allah. Interestingly, however, he's blaming US-based Sunni Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers, the Gulenists, of preventing him to build such a just and moral order.
