Review by Ian Keogh
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has monopolised politics in Turkey since becoming Prime Minister in 2003, a position he held until ascended to President in 2014. True democracies outside Turkey see an autocrat with the region’s largest army as someone to be very wary of, and plenty within Turkey have regretted an idle comment in public opposing or disrespecting him. Yet there are still plenty of Turks who support the progress he’s overseen, discounting the persecutions to re-elect him time after time.
Exiled Turkish writer Can Dündar prefaces his biography with a testament of journalistic integrity despite having an axe to grind, before recounting Erdoğan’s 1954 birth and a childhood of absolute poverty with a violently authoritarian father. Football and politics provide an escape, and those who grew up with Erdoğan remain loyal political supporters throughout their lives. Their younger days were marked with a growing division between secular influence and Islamic adherence fearing Communists, and Erdoğan’s career begins with election as Youth Party Leader of an opposition party in a military state. It’s against the odds, with Erdoğan proving wilier than a corrupt party elite.
Clocking in at three hundred pages this is a comprehensive accounting of Erdoğan’s persistence and commitment in the face of several failures, taking him from birth to being appointed Prime Minister for the first time. Dündar explains how from early in his career Erdoğan has a talent for seeing which way the wind is blowing, and for maintaining a balance between the religious and secular, appealing to both. A masterstroke is his organisation welcoming women in direct contrast to other parties, and when he’s eventually elected as Mayor of Istanbul he instigates popular civic projects, yet also maintains strict Islamic principles, denouncing what he considers “Western”.
With plenty of pages to fill, artist Anwar Mohammed opts for a stark black and white style that’s almost iconography in places in eliminating anything unnecessary. Backgrounds are spartan and the focus is very much on portraits, with the younger Erdoğan up front and central. It’s a practical style given the work involved, but the results don’t have great visual appeal.
In attempting to be even-handed, Dündar highlights a corrupt and what might be considered an unworkable system over which Erdoğan nonetheless eventually triumphs. He overcomes political opponents who maliciously exploit a dishonest structure. Given his struggles, it’s a shame this biography doesn’t extend into the years of Erdoğan’s reign, as instead of reforming the system that frustrated him on so many occasions, he’s seemingly slipped into place at the head of it and controls it efficiently. He’s shown as a shrewd debater, never at a loss, and Dündar features sections from speeches and interviews not entirely understood at the time, but definitely pointing to a future without compromise.
Only toward the end of the book do we see the first proper glimpses of what was to come. Cover-up and witness intimidation occurs after a car accident involving Erdoğan’s son, Erdoğan himself is treated as a king despite being imprisoned for a crime, and in 1999 he acts as a very 21st century political leader in casting himself as a victim. Throughout Dündar paints Turkey as having a barely credible democracy, with corruption endemic for later favours and a depressing truth throughout reveals Erdoğan ruthless in his quest for power.
