A video celebrating President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's 63rd birthday went viral on social media circles Sunday.
A version of the famous song "You'll Never Walk Alone" – associated with Liverpool fans – recorded by Frank Sinatra was used in the video.
The 63-year-old Turkish leader was born into a conservative working class family in Istanbul's Kasımpaşa quarter on Feb. 26, 1954. During his childhood, he worked and studied at the same time to earn extra money. He was playing football as an amateur and later as semi-professional, however, he had to quit as he was climbing the ranks in politics.
Erdoğan first joined the National Turkish Students Union (MTTB) – a nationalist and youth organization – in his high school years, later joining the National Salvation Party (MSP), which followed a similar political pattern. He was elected chairman of MSP's Beyoğlu Youth Branch, later to be elected chairman of the party's Istanbul Youth Branches in 1976. When the Welfare Party (RP) was established as MSP's successor after the military coup in the 1980s, Erdoğan returned to politics, and in 1984, he became the Beyoğlu district chairman of his party.
In 1978, he married Emine Gülbaran in Istanbul. The couple had four children, namely Ahmet Burak, Sümeyye, Bilal and Esra.
In a tight race against several high-profile rivals, Erdoğan was elected as Istanbul mayor in the March 27, 1994 local elections with the help of the rise of RP and divisions in center parties. He proved himself as a hardworking and capable politician in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, which was struggling with numerous infrastructure problems at the time. His success as mayor gave him recognition on the national level, but also brought him negative media attention from the secular media elite and political parties.
During the course of Feb. 28, 1997, postmodern coup, RP was banned by the Constitutional Court for threatening secularism in Turkey in Jan. 1998, and Erdoğan was sentenced to a 10-month prison sentence due to a poem he recited in southeastern province of Siirt in Dec. 1997. His four-month imprisonment term in 1999 made him even more popular in the eyes of his supporters. Although some of Erdoğan's adversaries infamously claimed the end of his political life in national newspaper headlines, even many of Erdoğan's critics found the sentence unfair and his popularity boosted throughout the nation.
Erdoğan was among the leading founders of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and was elected chairman of the party due to his popularity, young age and oratory skills. The party redefined conservatism in Turkish politics, which helped it to win the Nov. 3, 2002 general elections in a landslide amid a collapsing economy and crumbling center parties.
Erdoğan led the AK Party to three general and three local election victories as its chairman, in addition to two referendum victories. His popularity was boosted with a strong economy, numerous infrastructure projects and reforms in health and education. While aiming to expand Turkey's influence in its region and in the world, Erdoğan also aimed to end the 40-year-old armed conflict in southeastern Turkey and numerous reconciliation steps were taken with the countrytarget="_blank"'>With 52 percent of the votes on Aug. 28, 2014, Erdoğan became the country's 12th president and the first one elected to the post through popular vote.