Over the past twelve years, Turkey has undergone a period of transformation. Led by President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the country encountered so many obstacles such that a truly historic struggle became necessary. He survived over a dozen assassination attempts. In the early years of Erdoğan's tenure, the military and the judiciary exercised guardianship over the country and abused the power of bureaucracy, which they controlled, to arbitrarily impose various schemes on civilian politics with complete disregard for democracy and law. The constitutional referendum of September 12, 2010 marked the end of the military guardianship, but the struggle merely changed its shape and appearance.Regardless of the changing faces on the frontlines, the oligarchical power of Turkey's elites represents a broad coalition that, for the most part, consists of civilians. Members of this group filled the power vacuum which 90 years of Kemalist rule presented them with and exploited the opportunity to put themselves ahead of lower-income communities and religious parts of society, in terms of financial and human capital. A handful of individuals thus controlled the nation's economy and made sure that elected governments cannot remain in power unless their demands were met. In this sense, the group exercised guardianship, as opposed to power, over the country and politicians who did not abide by their rules were discredited and subsequently removed from power through direct and indirect interventions of the military in civilian politics. In previous decades, the media, NGOs, labor unions, professional associations, universities and, of course, the judiciary have all played their part, depending on the needs of the day, to take down unfriendly governments. It was this coalition which ensured that Turkey, otherwise a member of the Western club, could perform military coups in sterile conditions – that is without looking like North Korea. The propaganda machine turned the most sensitive issues into ammunition against elected governments. Women's rights, minority issues and freedom of expression were only valuable when they served to discredit unfriendly government officials. Traditionally, the Parliament and Turkey's politicians have been deliberately weakened, since the people, when left alone, rallied behind the oligarchy's greatest adversary. Thus the ballot box could be choked at higher levels of government.Over the past twelve years, Erdoğan merely relied on election results against such a broad coalition. This, in turn, caused tensions between elections since the Prime Minister was unwilling to provide classic responses and instead remained committed to original policies – which gave rise to the polarization argument. Calling upon Erdoğan to not polarize society, commentators really told him to abort his mission. After all, accusing a politician who survived multiple coups and became the target of the opposition's most offensive attacks had little credibility.While the people facilitated Erdoğan's rise, he returned the favor by staying on his feet between elections. Having defeated his rivals in the presidential election on Sunday and won nine consecutive elections during his tenure, the president-elect went down in history as a populist and democratic leader who changed the country from scratch. Over the years, he became so significant that oppressed people in a number of disadvantaged countries followed the race as if the election related to their native countries. After all, they dreamed of living in a free country like Turkey but lived in parts of the world where their voices were silenced.The people of Turkey voted for a candidate who was not flawless but nonetheless liberated them from the yoke of guardianship and improved their living standards. Erdoğan's base did not turn a blind eye to his shortcomings but merely made a rational decision after comparing him to his competition. The president-elect, in turn, has traditionally been a political leader who learns from his mistakes and always keeps the demands of his base in mind. Unless something magical happens in the opposition ranks to interfere with Erdoğan's communication with the people, he will govern the country for another decade.