Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
ConservativeOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Conservative hall →- Role
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- Placement
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§ Where Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stands
3 axesErdoğan's governments embraced markets and private enterprise: after the 2001 crash they kept to an IMF programme, privatised firms such as Türk Telekom, attracted foreign investment and drove growth through construction and mega-projects such as Istanbul's new airport, opened in 2018. His insistence that high interest rates cause inflation later led to repeated rate cuts and inflation above 80 per cent in 2022, before orthodox policies returned in 2023.
Erdoğan has concentrated power steadily. After the failed coup of July 2016 his government ruled by emergency decree for two years, dismissing judges, officers, teachers and civil servants, and the 2017 referendum replaced the parliamentary system with an executive presidency. Elections continued and were sometimes lost, as in Istanbul in 2019, but much of the media came under government influence and opposition figures such as Selahattin Demirtaş were jailed.
Erdoğan is a religious conservative who has reshaped Turkey's secular order. His governments lifted the ban on headscarves in universities and the civil service, expanded religious imam hatip schools, tightened alcohol sales in 2013, reconverted Hagia Sophia into a mosque in 2020 and withdrew Turkey from the Istanbul Convention on violence against women in 2021, while Istanbul authorities banned Pride marches from 2015.
How close are you to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
HistoricalRecep Tayyip Erdoğan (b. 1954) became prime minister of Turkey in 2003 and president in 2014. Raised in Istanbul's working-class Kasımpaşa district and educated at a religious imam hatip school, he rose through Necmettin Erbakan's Islamist movement to become mayor of Istanbul in 1994. Jailed for four months in 1999 for reciting a religious poem at a rally, he co-founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001, which won a parliamentary majority the following year. He was re-elected president in 2018 and 2023.
Erdoğan's first decade combined rapid growth, EU accession talks and reforms that curbed the army's political role, winning support from liberals as well as religious conservatives. From the 2013 Gezi Park protests onwards his rule grew more personal and repressive: after a failed coup in July 2016, which he blamed on the Gülen movement, more than 150,000 people were dismissed or suspended from public jobs and tens of thousands jailed, and a 2017 referendum created an executive presidency. Critics accuse him of eroding judicial independence and media freedom; supporters credit him with prosperity and national assertiveness.
Key works & moments
- 1994Elected mayor of Istanbul for the Islamist Welfare Party.
- 1999Serves four months in prison for reciting a religious poem at a 1997 rally.
- 2001Co-founds the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
- 2003Becomes prime minister after the AKP's 2002 election victory.
- 2016Survives a coup attempt and launches mass purges under a state of emergency.
- 2017Wins a referendum creating an executive presidency.
§ Minds closest to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
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§ Also in the Conservative hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's political ideology?
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a religious nationalist conservative whose politics grew out of Turkey's Islamist movement: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Conservative. Economically he sits clearly right of centre (+50), favouring private enterprise, privatisation and construction-led growth, though his unorthodox interest-rate views fuelled high inflation. On governance he leans authoritarian (+25), concentrating power in an executive presidency and curbing media and judicial independence while still contesting elections. Socially he is a religious conservative who has expanded the place of Islam in public life.
Is Erdoğan left-wing or right-wing?
Right-wing. Erdoğan combines market-friendly economics with Sunni Muslim social conservatism and Turkish nationalism, and in 2018 he formed the People's Alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party. His early years drew support from some liberals because he curbed the army's political power and pursued EU membership, and his welfare and housing programmes appealed to poorer voters, but his social, national and economic politics place him firmly on the right.
Is Erdoğan a dictator?
Most scholars describe his Turkey as a competitive authoritarian system rather than an outright dictatorship. Under his rule elections have been held and sometimes lost, as when the opposition won Istanbul and Ankara in 2019, and he was forced into a run-off in 2023. But since the 2016 coup attempt power has been concentrated in the presidency, many journalists and opposition politicians have been prosecuted, including Istanbul's mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, arrested in 2025, and international observers reported that elections gave the incumbent unfair advantages.
Which minds are closest to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are Angela Merkel (94% alike), Robert McNamara (93% alike) and Jean Monnet (93% alike). The furthest is Emma Goldman (18% alike).