Erdogan Set To Be Turkey's Longest-Serving Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan will become Turkey's longest-serving prime minister next week, after more than ten years without interruption, reports Tulin Daloglu.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan completed his first ten years in office today [March 15] while resting at his Istanbul home since he called sick in with flu on Tuesday.
When the Justice and Development Party won a resounding election victory in November 2002, capturing two-thirds of the seats in parliament, Erdogan, a former mayor of Istanbul, was not even able to run for office. The Turkish Constitution barred him from politics because he had been convicted and served a brief 1999 jail term for “inciting religious enmity.” The parliament overturned the laws that prevented him from running for public office, and he won a parliamentary seat in a by-election on March 9, 2003 in the province of Siirt. He took over the prime ministry from Abdullah Gul five days later — making Gul the shortest-servingin office with four months only.
Since Turkey embraced a multi-party system, Adnan Menderes, the Democrat Party leader executed in the 1960 military coup, remains the longest served prime minister with 10 years 5 days in power. On Thursday, Erdogan will break that record.
Erdogan often expresses his goals for Turkey in 2023, marking the centennial of the foundation of the Republic — hinting that he would like to stay in power at the least for another decade. While he has expressed that he won’t run for prime minister again, he is proposing a change to Turkey’s parliamentary system and make it a Turkish-style presidential rule. It remains unclear as to whether he will be able to accomplish his goals.
