Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Early Political Career: Islamism as Political Ideology

Abstract

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a longest-standing leader of Turkey and left his mark on Turkish politics. During his early political career and thereafter, he exploited Islam to gain greater power. In this realm, Islam became a political ideology within his power. Previous studies over Erdoğan‟s distinctive Islamism did not use the framework of Islamism as a political ideology. Therefore, extant studies remain insufficient concerning the impact of Islamism on his worldview and policies. This article examines the brief Islamism in Turkey and Erdoğan‟s political career with the framework of Islamism as political ideology.

Keywords

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; Islamism; Political Ideology; Turkish Islamism; Exploitation