The official celebrations that greeted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's election victory in July 2018 provided a helpful indication on the direction the country is likely to take under his leadership in the years to come.
Given that Turkey remains a prominent member of the Nato alliance and has spent much of the past two decades seeking to acquire membership of the European Union (EU), the guest list for the president’s inauguration might have been expected to include a number of foreign dignitaries.
Yet, in a clear signal of how Erdogan views Turkey's future relations with the outside world, no invitations were extended to political leaders in the US or Britain to attend the inaugural ceremony held in the gardens of Ak Saray, the presidential palace. Instead, the only heads of state from the European Union to receive invites were Hungary's Viktor Orban and Bulgaria's Rumen Radev.
Instead, the attendees witnessing the ceremony – the highlight of which was the newly elected president taking part in a slow procession through the crowd to rapturous applause and the boom of cannon fire, were drawn from an eclectic group of nations which included North Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Sudan, Pakistan, Somalia, Qatar and Kuwait.
Part of the reason for Erdogan's decision to turn his back on the West, as journalist Hannah Lucinda Smith explains in her book Erdogan Rising: A Warning to Europe, was the Turkish leader's irritation at the lukewarm reception his victory had received from the West. Monitors sent from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe to observe the elections concluded that the vote had been "free but not fair", not least because coverage of the campaign provided by the largely pro-Erdogan Turkish media had left the opposition at a crushing disadvantage.
The other important factor in Erdogan’s post-victory celebrations was that, so far as he was concerned, Turkey’s future no longer lay in forging closer ties with the West, but in forging its own Islamist destiny, one where the ultimate ambition was to recreate the glory of the Ottoman Empire.
As a journalist with The Times newspaper who has covered the region for a decade, Smith is ideally placed to provide a detailed examination of Erdogan's remarkable rise from being a fringe player in Turkish politics to becoming arguably the most influential – certainly the most controversial – leader Turkey has known since the rule of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.
As Smith explains in her highly readable account of Erdogan's rise to power, the Turkish leader's commitment to the Islamist cause began early in his political career when, aged only 21, he became the leader of an Istanbul branch of the National Salvation Party (Milli Selamet Partisi in Turkish, or MSP), one of the few overtly Islamist organisations in Turkey at the time.
Tall and striking, Erdogan made a big impression on his fellow Islamists when he attended a party meeting in 1974. The country had just undergone its second military coup, and Istanbul was caught up in a mushrooming street war between rival leftist and nationalist street gangs.
“He could make himself heard. When he spoke, people felt sympathy with him”, one of his contemporaries from that period tells Smith.
Erdogan’s inspiration during that period was Necmettin Erbakan, a middle-aged and nerdish professor, who argued that all of Turkey’s ills were the result of foreign meddling and western influence, and the only way to return the country to its former Ottoman glory was to embrace Islam and rebuild relations from the Muslim world.
He could make himself heard. When he spoke, people felt sympathy with him
Even though National Salvation Party and Necmettin are now little more than footnotes in modern Turkey's history, Erdogan has remained committed to its Islamist agenda, to the extent that he even spent a brief spell in jail for his beliefs in the late 1990s.
These formative years in Turkish politics certainly had a profound impact on Erdogan's approach to politics where, having helped to found the Justice and Development Party , he has adopted an increasingly despotic approach, to the extent that the country is now suffering as much repression today as it did under the junta.
The result, as Smith observes in her concluding chapter, is that Erdogan increasingly resembles the central character in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Autumn of the Patriarch, a man who has little concern for diversity of opinion either among his colleagues or within the country itself.
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
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- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
TEACHERS' PAY - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
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2.0
Director: S Shankar
Producer: Lyca Productions; presented by Dharma Films
Cast: Rajnikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Sudhanshu Pandey
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
MATCH STATS
Wolves 0
Aston Villa 1 (El Ghazi 90 4' pen)
Red cards: Joao Moutinho (Wolves); Douglas Luiz (Aston Villa)
Man of the match: Emi Martinez (Aston Villa)
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
More coverage from the Future Forum
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
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The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
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On sale: Now
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
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Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
Expert advice
“Join in with a group like Cycle Safe Dubai or TrainYAS, where you’ll meet like-minded people and always have support on hand.”
Stewart Howison, co-founder of Cycle Safe Dubai and owner of Revolution Cycles
“When you sweat a lot, you lose a lot of salt and other electrolytes from your body. If your electrolytes drop enough, you will be at risk of cramping. To prevent salt deficiency, simply add an electrolyte mix to your water.”
Cornelia Gloor, head of RAK Hospital’s Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy Centre
“Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can ride as fast or as far during the summer as you do in cooler weather. The heat will make you expend more energy to maintain a speed that might normally be comfortable, so pace yourself when riding during the hotter parts of the day.”
Chandrashekar Nandi, physiotherapist at Burjeel Hospital in Dubai
Company profile
Date started: December 24, 2018
Founders: Omer Gurel, chief executive and co-founder and Edebali Sener, co-founder and chief technology officer
Based: Dubai Media City
Number of employees: 42 (34 in Dubai and a tech team of eight in Ankara, Turkey)
Sector: ConsumerTech and FinTech
Cashflow: Almost $1 million a year
Funding: Series A funding of $2.5m with Series B plans for May 2020
TV: World Cup Qualifier 2018 matches will be aired on on OSN Sports HD Cricket channel
EMILY%20IN%20PARIS%3A%20SEASON%203
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Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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