Erdogan and Turkey’s Quest for Neo-Ottoman Empire

“We will never bow to banditry on our continental shelf, nor will we pull back in the face of sanctions and threats,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan once while talking about his country. Erdogan, a Turkish politician serving as the current President of Turkey, has also served as Prime Minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. In 1998, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison for instigating hatred and bigotry, after reading out verses of Ottoman Islamist Poet at a public event. After this event, the constitutional court of the country suspended his Welfare Party on the grounds that it was “threatening Turkey’s Kemalist existence”, especially targeting its secularity. The Kemalist nature of Turkey includes forming a new state with relatively stable foundations, being perpetually cautious against enemies inside and outside. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (the founding father of the Republic of Turkey) with his party support — aiming for an ideal nation — used to “other” the Ottomans to construct a new state and nation; but what is happening now is quite the contrary.

CPPR Research Intern, Sakshi Gemini and Senior Research Associate, Gazi Hassan writes..