Turkey’s Erdogan indicates he will step down at end of term after 2 decades in power

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talks during a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following their meeting at Dolmabahce palace in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, March 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the country’s March local elections would be his last, suggesting an end to his more than two decades in power.

It was the first time that Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003, has spoken about leaving office.

“I am working non-stop. We’re running around breathlessly because, for me, it’s a final,” said the president at a meeting of the TUGVA young Turks foundation.

“With the authority that the law confers on me, this election is my last election.”

The 70-year-old leader expressed confidence that his conservative Justice and Development (AKP) party would nonetheless remain in power even after he has left office.

He said that the results of the March 31 local elections would be “a blessing for the brothers who come after me. There will be a transfer of confidence.”

The AKP is hoping to regain the mayorship of Istanbul in the elections later this month, having seen it taken by the opposition in 2019.

Erdogan was himself mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998.

He was then elected prime minister in 2003 when the premier was the dominant figure in Turkish politics.

That changed when Erdogan was elected president in 2014, following three terms as prime minister.

A constitutional change in 2017 then turned Turkey from a parliamentary system into an executive presidency, abolishing the position of prime minister and ensuring that Erdogan’s grip on power remained unchanged.

Further election successes in 2018 and last year have meant that Erdogan’s often controversial rule has extended into a third decade.

Under Erdogan, Turkey turned away from its secular path and embraced Islamism. His time in office saw a marked deterioration in ties between one-time allies Israel and Turkey.

Turkey maintains close ties with Hamas, the terror group that slaughtered some 1,200 Israelis in an unprecedented assault from Gaza on October 7, plunging the region into war.

Erdogan had been in the midst of an effort to warm ties with Israel in the months before the war, but has since sharply backtracked and returned to the same vitriolic attacks that characterized many of the Islamist leader’s previous years in power.

Israel was a long-time regional ally of Turkey before Erdogan came to power, but ties imploded after a 2010 Israeli commando raid on the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara ship, part of a blockade-busting flotilla, that left dead 10 Turkish activists who attacked IDF soldiers aboard the ship.

Netanyahu and Erdogan repeatedly aimed brickbats at each other in the ensuing years, including mutual charges of genocide. In July 2014, Erdogan accused the Jewish state of “keeping Hitler’s spirit alive” during a war with Gaza.

Ties later saw a moderate improvement, but both countries withdrew their ambassadors in 2018 amid violence in Gaza and the Trump administration’s relocation of its embassy to Jerusalem.

Facing hardening diplomatic isolation and economic woes, Erdogan began to publicly display an openness toward rapprochement in December 2020. In August of last year, Israel and Turkey announced a full renewal of diplomatic ties.

However, both countries again withdrew their ambassadors with the outbreak of war, in Israel’s case as a safety measure.