In power since 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has never been in such bad shape since the beginning of his political career. This Sunday, May 14, he is running for the first time in the presidential election against a united opposition behind a single candidate, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu. The polls predict a tight ballot and observers fear an election of all dangers.
But is the balance sheet of the last twenty years so catastrophic for Erdogan? Between authoritarian excesses, regime change, the Islamization of society and an economy in free fall, the situation in Turkey has not always been so bleak. How did Erdogan switch? Discover twenty years of metamorphosis in our long video format, with the analysis of Dorothée Schmid, researcher and head of the Contemporary Turkey program at Ifri, and Bayram Balci, researcher in Arab‐Islamic politics and civilization at the Institutes of Political Studies in ‘Aix en Provence and Grenoble.