One of the world's most divisive and controversial leaders, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ruled over Turkey as either prime minister or president since 2003. This graphic biography sheds light on the origins of Turkey's most powerful man, from his youth as a budding soccer player to his years spent navigating Turkey's political landscape, including the founding of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001. Author Can Dundar, a Turkish journalist and contributor to the Washington Post now living in exile in Berlin, spent several years researching this book. In 2015 he was arrested when his newspaper published photos of Turkey's state intelligence sending weapons to ISIS in Syria; in 2020 he was sentenced in absentia by Turkish courts to 27 years in prison for espionage and aiding an armed terrorist organization. Situated at the crossroads between Europe and Asia with a population of 84 million, Turkey is a growing economic powerhouse with a geopolitically strategic location. As
