All About Recep Tayyip Erdogan - Prime Minister of Turkey

Welcome to the Investors Trading Academy event of the week. Each week our staff of educators tries to introduce you to a person of interest in the financial world. This could be a person in government or banking or an important investors or trader. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has kept in the headlines over the past years but his recent activities including the downing of a Russia Airforce jet is having geopolitical as well as financial and economic effects on the global markets. Turkey was in the midst of developing one of the world’s largest pipelines for bringing Russian natural gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine. Now Erdogan and Putin do not speak to one another. Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reportedly defended his push for a presidential system of government by citing "Hitler's Germany" as an historic example. The President has pushed ahead with efforts to increase the stature of his own position, despite fears it would split the country's seat of power in two. Mr Erdogan cut short a state visit to Saudi Arabia after the death of prominent pro-government political journalist Hasan Karakaya, and in a press conference on his return to Turkey was asked if he thought a presidential system would be possible while maintaining the unitary structure of the state. In November, Mr Erdogan’s AKP party won a decisive victory in the Turkish parliamentary elections, cementing his grip on power. Despite his position theoretically making him above the country's party politics, he clearly played a key role in AKP's success and state broadcasters gave little airtime to any of his opponents. He has previously suggested Turkey already operates under a de facto presidential system, and said his constitutional reforms would only "finalize" the change. As president, Erdogan has already gone far beyond blurring the boundaries of what is supposed to be a largely ceremonial role — alarming critics and democracy activists in the process. After 11 years as prime minister, in August 2014 Mr Erdogan became Turkey's first directly-elected president, in what remains a largely ceremonial role. But critics have increasingly accused the 61-year-old leader of polarizing the country - by brooking no dissent and harboring a secret agenda to turn Turkey into a fundamentally conservative Muslim society. In 2013 Mr Erdogan triumphed over the military elite when senior officers were among 17 people jailed for life, convicted of plotting to overthrow the AKP in what was known as the "Ergenekon" case. Hundreds of other officers were also put on trial, along with journalists and secularist politicians, in that investigation and a similar one called the "Operation Sledgehammer" case. When more than 200 officers were detained in the Sledgehammer investigation in 2011 the heads of Turkey's army, navy and air force resigned in protest. Critics accused Mr Erdogan of using the judiciary to silence political opponents, and there were many allegations of trumped-up charges. But his supporters applauded him for taking on previously untouchable establishment figures, who saw themselves as guardians of the state created by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. By Barry Norman, Investors Trading Academy - ITA