Public image of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

The public image of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan concerns the image of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, current President of Turkey, among residents of Turkey and worldwide.

Rating and polls

International polling

Opinions of Erdoğan from outside Turkey varies from region and time of his premiership or presidency. During the first years of his premiership in which Turkey reformed its law to comply with EU-accession talks, Erdogan received favorable ratings in Europe, calling the reforms a "silent revolution".[1] The refugee crisis originating from the Syrian civil war lowered the ratings of Erdogan in Europe, while maintaning high support in the Arab world.

Results of the 2017 Gallup International poll.
Views of Recep Tayyip Erdogan by country[2]

Country polled	Favorable	Unfavorable	Net Score
Vietnam	64%	8%	+56
Afghanistan	74%	20%	+54
Kosovo	57%	10%	+47
Indonesia	58%	13%	+45
Albania	65%	30%	+35
Bosnia and Herzegovina	61%	29%	+32
Bangladesh	53%	26%	+27
Pakistan	61%	34%	+27
Moldova	48%	22%	+26
Mexico	50%	27%	+23
Turkey	58%	36%	+22
Kazakhstan	42%	21%	+21
Azerbaijan	26%	7%	+19
Macedonia	47%	29%	+18
Nigeria	43%	27%	+16
Iran	46%	30%	+16
Japan	21%	6%	+15
Ethiopia	29%	14%	+15
South Korea	28%	13%	+15
Romania	46%	32%	+14
Ukraine	52%	39%	+13
Ghana	28%	15%	+13
Russia	40%	30%	+10
India	19%	9%	+10
Colombia	35%	29%	+6
Brazil	29%	23%	+6
Ecuador	17%	12%	+5
South Africa	30%	27%	+3
Thailand	16%	13%	+3
Philippines	27%	25%	+2
Iraq	44%	52%	-8
Peru	14%	23%	-9
Argentina	16%	32%	-16
Hong Kong	19%	43%	-24
Poland	16%	42%	-26
United States	6%	33%	-27
Serbia	25%	55%	-30
Latvia	11%	50%	-39
United Kingdom	9%	53%	-44
France	13%	58%	-45
Ireland	10%	57%	-47
Italy	12%	59%	-47
Bulgaria	12%	65%	-53
Czech Republic	10%	63%	-53
Croatia	12%	66%	-54
Spain	8%	62%	-54
Sweden	6%	73%	-67
Netherlands	10%	79%	-69
Slovenia	9%	79%	-70
Austria	10%	63%	-73
Armenia	7%	81%	-74
Germany	10%	85%	-75
Greece	9%	88%	-79

Comperative polling

Erdoğan is the most popular world leader for Arab youths, according to the results of a poll, carried out by the Arab Barometer research network for BBC News Arabic. The survey polled the opinions of 25,000 youths across the Arab world on a wide variety of subjects.[3]

Percentage positive view of leader

	Donald Trump	Vladimir Putin	Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Algeria	12%	30%	66%
Egypt	15%	29%	15%
Iraq	16%	38%	38%
Jordan	6%	14%	77%
Lebanon	12%	36%	30%
Libya	14%	44%	22%
Morocco	14%	24%	61%
Palestine	6%	19%	72%
Sudan	21%	31%	78%
Tunisia	10%	32%	53%
Yemen	5%	11%	54%
Average	12%	28%	51%

Perception

Accusations of antisemitism

Erdoğan referred to the Turkish novelist and Islamist ideologue, Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, as his muse. Kısakürek was regarded by some analysts, such as Günther Jikeli and Kemal Silay, as the source of his views on Jews.[4][5][6] Kısakürek's publications included the Turkish translation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and praise for industrialist Henry Ford's The International Jew, as well as a political program in which he wrote: "Chief among these treacherous and insidious elements to be cleansed are the Dönmeh and the Jews".[7][8][9] In 1974, as president of the Beyoğlu Youth Group of the Islamist MSP Party, Erdoğan wrote, directed and played the lead role in a play titled "Mas-Kom-Ya" (Mason-Komünist-Yahudi [Mason-Communist-Jew]), which presented freemasonry, communism and Judaism as evil.[10] A 2009 report issued by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said that Erdoğan "indirectly incites and encourages" antisemitism.[11] In 2013, Erdoğan was placed second on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of the year's top ten antisemitic personalities, after Erdoğan blamed the "interest rate lobby" as organizers of the mass protests against him in cities around the country in June 2013.[12] In another quote that was regarded as antisemitic, he said “When the word ‘media’ is pronounced, Israel and Israel’s administration comes to mind. They have the ability to manipulate it as they wish”. He then claimed that not only the international press but also Turkish newspapers were run by Israel.[13] During the campaign for the Turkish elections in June 2015, Erdoğan accused The New York Times of being represented by "Jewish capital" after foreign media outlets expressed concern over the corrosion of freedom of expression in Turkey.[14][15][16]

As a younger man, in 1974, Erdogan wrote, directed, and gave himself the lead role in the play Mas-Kom-Ya, which presented freemasonry, communism, and Judaism as world evils.[17][18] The play features a Muslim factory worker, who sent his son to Europe where the son became influenced by the West, ultimately ending with a Jewish "agitator" posing as a Muslim Turk and inciting the workers against the factory owner, who dies; at one climatic moment, a devoutly Muslim character shouts "all evil regimes are inventions of Jews!"[19][20]

When during a televised press conference he was asked if he believed a presidential system was possible in a unitary state. Erdoğan affirmed this and cited Nazi Germany as an example of how this is possible.[21] However, the Turkish president's office said that Erdoğan was not advocating a Hitler-style government when he called for a state system with a strong executive. Furthermore, that the Turkish president had declared the Holocaust, anti-semitism and Islamophobia as crimes against humanity and that it was out of the question for him to cite Hitler's Germany as a good example.[22]

In 2014, in response to the Soma mining disaster which killed 300 people, pro-Erdogan Islamist media accused the "Jewish media" and Israel for culpability,[23] and Erdogan himself was filmed saying "why are you running away, spawn of Israel",[24] in what was considered a "clear anti-Semitic slur" by Kemal Silay and Gunther Jikeli.[17]

Ottomanism

Erdoğan meeting Palestinian President Abbas in Erdogan's Presidential Palace

As President, Erdoğan has overseen a revival of Ottoman tradition, greeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with an Ottoman-style ceremony in the new presidential palace, with guards dressed in costumes representing founders of 16 Great Turkish Empires in history.[25] While serving as the Prime Minister of Turkey, Erdoğan's AKP made references to the Ottoman era during election campaigns, such as calling their supporters 'grandsons of Ottomans' (Osmanlı torunu).[26] This proved controversial, since it was perceived to be an open attack against the republican nature of modern Turkey founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. In 2015, Erdoğan made a statement in which he endorsed the old Ottoman term külliye to refer to university campuses rather than the standard Turkish word kampüs.[27] Many critics have thus accused Erdoğan of wanting to become an Ottoman sultan and abandon the secular and democratic credentials of the Republic.[28][29][30][31] When pressed on this issue in January 2015, Erdoğan denied these claims and said that he would aim to be more like Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom rather than like an Ottoman sultan.[32]

References

1. "Erdogan: Turkey has other plans if EU membership fails". Turkse Media (in Dutch). 12 July 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
2. "Gallup International's 41st Annual Global End of Year Survey" (PDF). WIN/GIA. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
3. "Are Arabs turning their backs on religion?". BBC. 24 June 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
4. Halil M. Karaveli and M.K. Kaya. "ISLAMIC CONSERVATIVE". Turkey Analyst vol. 2 no. 20. Archived from the original on 9 May 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
5. Günther Jikeli and Kemal Silay. "'Spawn of Israel': Erdogan's anti-Semitic obsessions".
6. Singer, Sean R. "Erdogan's Muse: The School of Necip Fazil Kisakurek". World Affairs Journal. Archived from the original on 13 August 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
7. Kısakürek, Necip Fazıl (1968). Ideolocya örgüsü (10. basım. ed.). İstanbul: Büyük Doğu Yayınları. p. 71. ISBN 9789758180325.
8. Baer, Marc David. "An Enemy Old and New: The Dönme, Anti-Semitism, and Conspiracy Theories in the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic". Jewish Quarterly Review 103.4 (2013): 523–555. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
9. "Project MUSE". Retrieved 19 June 2016.
10. "Antisemitism in the Turkish Media (Part III): Targeting Turkey's Jewish Citizens". memri.
11. Ravid, Barak. "Israel accuses Turkish PM of inciting anti-Semitism". Retrieved 3 August 2014.
12. "'Spawn of Israel': Erdogan's anti-Semitic obsessions". Haaretz.
13. Rosenfeld, edited by Alvin H. (2013). Resurgent antisemitism global perspectives. Bloomington [u.a.]: Indiana Univ. Press. p. 318. ISBN 978-0253008909.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
14. "Erdogan ahead of elections: 'Jewish money behind New York Times'". Jerusalem Post. 6 June 2015.
15. "17 things Turkey's Erdogan has said about journalists". Washington Post. 10 June 2015.
16. "Turkey's Erdogan: 'Jewish Capital' Is Behind New York Times". Haaretz. 7 June 2015.
17. "'Spawn of Israel': Erdogan's Anti-Semitic Obsessions". Haaretz. 22 May 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
18. "Ve Erdoğan sahnede!". Gazeta Vatan. May 2, 2015. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
19. Aykan Erdemir and Oren Kessler (May 15, 2017). "A Turkish TV blockbuster reveals Erdogan's conspiratorial, anti-Semitic worldview". Washington Times. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
20. Ozan Ekin Gökşin. "Masonlar, Komünistler, Yahudiler". Alvaremoz. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
21. Erdoğan: Presidential system with unitary state possible just like Hitler's Germany Archived 6 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine Zaman, 1 January 2016
22. Agency (1 January 2016). "Turkey: President Erdogan's office denies advocating Hitler-style rule". The Independent. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
23. "Pro-Erdogan Paper Blames Mine Disaster on the Jews". Haaretz. 21 May 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
24. "WATCH: Erdogan shouts anti-Israel slur at protestor". Haaretz. 16 May 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
25. [e-mail]. "T.C. CUMHURBAŞKANLIĞI : Cumhurbaşkanlığı". tccb.gov.tr.
26. Oktay Özilhan. "AKP'nin şarkısında 'Uzun adam' gitti 'Osmanlı torunu' geldi ! – Taraf Gazetesi". Taraf Gazetesi. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015.
27. "Erdoğan: Kampus değil, külliye". ilk-kursun.com. Archived from the original on 2016-06-03. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
28. "Recep Tayyip Erdogan: The 'new sultan' now has a new palace – and it has cost Turkish taxpayers £400m". The Independent.
29. "Erdogan Is Turkey's New Sultan – WSJ". WSJ. 13 August 2014.
30. "The next sultan?". The Economist. 16 August 2014.
31. "'Turkey's president is not acting like the Queen – he is acting like a sultan'". Telegraph.co.uk. 2 February 2015.
32. "Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan: I want to be like Queen of UK". Telegraph.co.uk. 30 January 2015.