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It's a fine evening in Istanbul and people are preparing for a top soccer game. In the Besiktas district of Turkey's largest city, everyone supports their local club. Go Besiktas. In a PARK THESE TOP FANS ARE VERY LOYAL. We'd give everything for Besiktas and expect nothing back. We dedicate our lives and money to the club.
Look, this is the Besiktas eagle. This group of fans is called Carsia. They describe themselves as extreme left-wing critics of the system. Show them the tattoo. Some of them are even tattooed with an A for anarchy. These soccer fans are not afraid to stand up to authority. They take part in all the demonstrations because Besiktas is traditionally the club of the Kemalists who oppose President Erdogan. On walls and in shops there are portraits of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He's seen as the father of the secular republic founded in 1923.
Tonight, the fans are facing their worst enemy, Basaksehir, a team that belongs to associates of President Erdogan. We Carsia members from Besiktas are on the side of the workers and the oppressed. We don't like Basaksehir because they are a political team. It's a team built up and supported by the government so we hate them. This is what the arch enemy looks like. No tattoos, no alcohol. It feels more like being in the schoolyard. Erdogan has grasped all too well the power that soccer has over young people and society.
Using lavish donations from his industry friends, he built the Başakşehir club from scratch as a vehicle to spread his ideas. On the day the stadium was inaugurated, the president even graced the pitch himself. Erdogan grabs the ball and scores a goal. Erdogan goes on to score a hat-trick against a very feeble defense. The young fans are looked after by Burak Bilgili. The municipal employee is a supporter of the president's party, the AK Party. Our president is very involved in the Başakşehir district. He founded the club, so it's normal that he's on our side. That's why we named our fan group 1453.
The date symbolizes the city of Istanbul. The name is no coincidence. 1453 is when Constantinople was conquered by Sultan Mehmet II, one of Erdogan's idols. A few weeks after the recent earthquake which killed around 45,000 people in Turkey, fans chanted hostile anti-government slogans in the stands. The government was criticized for its abysmal disaster management. The devastating earthquake of February 6th has weakened Erdogan, who was until then almost untouchable.
God does not leave us without love. He does not leave us hungry, thirsty, and homeless. For the last 20 years, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been ruling Turkey and its 85 million inhabitants with an iron hand. His policies are a combination of economic liberalism, Islamism, and nationalism. Turkey has developed under his leadership. Infrastructure has been modernized and some industries, such as construction, have boomed. Erdoğan has long cultivated the image of a Muslim Democrat, but his intention today is to re-Islamize Turkey. He's building thousands of mosques across the country.
Thanks to the Turks, Islam has found its true identity. To remain unchallenged in his rule, Erdoğan is cracking down on his critics. Almost the entire press is now loyal to the government. Despite allegations of corruption, Erdoğan indulges in great luxury at the state's expense. Like a modern sultan, he's having a huge palace built with 1,500 rooms. I don't care whether they call me a dictator or whatever. It goes in one ear and out the other. The Balata family have their summer villa in a suburb of Istanbul.
Kemal, the father, runs several hotels. What should we watch, Dad? The whole family loves series about the Ottoman Empire. A great number of them are produced by Turkish television. These successful blockbusters with their epic war scenes tell the story of the Ottoman sultans who brought down the Christian empire in the Orient. They're also a good export to the Arab Muslim world. Erdogan soon realized how useful it was to revive this Turkish identity and celebrate the victory of Islam over Christianity. In his official promotional clips, Erdogan follows in the footsteps of
Sultan Mehmet the second who conquered Constantinople. Inspired by him, he strides proudly past his troops. Although the Balatas are part of the new bourgeoisie, they do not vote for the president's party. But they are very receptive to the nostalgia about the Ottoman Empire. We are very happy that people all over the world watch these series and that our culture is represented everywhere. In our house, Kerem is the biggest fan of the Turkish series about the Ottoman Empire. I think he's seen them all. About 15 all together. He's only six. But he's been asking us to tell him the history of the Ottoman Empire ever since he was three.
Young Kerem also knows all about the history of Sultan Mehmet the second and his conquest of Constantinople. How old was he when he conquered the city? 21. 21, yes. And which year was it? 1453. Yes, 1453. Are you proud that Kerem knows Turkish history so well? Of course, in Turkish we say nations that don't know their own history are doomed to extinction. Erdogan is exploiting the glory of the Ottoman past to galvanize the national sentiment. In Kasimpasa, the working-class neighborhood of Istanbul, where Erdogan grew up, he has turned his childhood soccer field into an archery club.
In the Ottoman Empire, the bow was the horseman's weapon. Erdogan was our neighbor. If we met today, he would beckon us over. Ertugrul is a childhood friend of Erdogan's and one of his loyal followers. He's a member of the AK Party, the Justice and Development Party founded by the president. Here it says, if you don't know your past, you can never have a future. Much as he focuses on archery today, young Erdogan's true passion was soccer. After game, he'd come through here. He was supposed to play for Fenerbahce. He was a good center forward.
Legend has it that the president had a good chance of becoming a professional soccer player. But his conservative and religious father was against it. Ertugrul bumps into Selahattin, Erdogan's former soccer coach. This is Erdogan, and this is Ertugrul. This photo was taken 50 years ago. He was a very good center forward. And later, when he was older, he changed position and became a defender. I love him with all my heart.
Even if it kills me, even if he loses all his supporters, I will still vote for him. Erdogan's family background is humble, just like this neighborhood. His father was a shipmaster on the Bosphorus, and mother a housewife. They lived in a traditional wooden house like this. The young Erdogan attended a Quran school. He even toyed with the idea of becoming an Imam for a while. He diligently attended the mosque in the neighborhood.
He was very religious. He performed all his daily prayers and urged young people to pray. He had no vices and he could talk to unveiled women and people who drank alcohol very convincingly. Erdogan remained loyal to this neighborhood for a long time. He lived here until his election as the mayor of Istanbul in 1994. She says that our president is an international leader. Semiha Pachal runs a grocery store where the Erdogan family also came shopping.
He grew up in our neighborhood, went to school here and look how far he's come. He's such an important man. We're very proud. We know him and his children well. His daughters grew up here. They're part of the family. We love Tayyip. He's our mom, our dad, he's everything to us, you know? We're behind him whatever he does. Recep Tayyip Erdogan's humble childhood fueled a dislike of the leftist elites who imposed strict secularism on the entire country.
He decided to take his first steps into politics with the Islamist Welfare Party and was elected mayor of Istanbul in 1994. The minarets will be our bayonets, the domes will be our helmets, the mosques will be our barracks and the believers our soldiers. This fundamentalist and nationalist poem went down badly in secular Turkey. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison, of which he served four.
I'm first and foremost a Muslim. After his release, Erdogan radically changed his strategy. He now concealed his intentions and presented himself as a Muslim Democrat. From today onwards, nothing will be the same in Turkey. In 2001, he founded the AK Party. He achieved one electoral success after the other, becoming Prime Minister in 2003. Erdogan sought reforms and endeavored to lead the country into European Union membership, but negotiations have stalled. I'm definitely in favor of partnership with Turkey, but not EU membership. Since Turkey's application was turned down, Erdogan has maintained a conflicted relationship with Europe. He regularly threatens to allow Syrian refugees to travel on to Europe.
If the refugees cannot live honorably on their own soil in their own countries, we must all jointly bear the burden. He has laid claim to part of the territory of neighboring Greece and even threatened war. Hey, Greece. Take a look at our history. If you keep provoking us, there will be severe consequences. Since the war in Ukraine, Erdogan has strategized on Turkey's NATO membership and his close ties with Putin to strengthen his position and play the peacemaker. But as an alleged peacemaker, Erdogan did not hesitate to bomb northern Syria and take action against the Kurds, his arch enemies, to strengthen his voter base. On the national stage, Erdogan has been returning to his original principles of
Islam and nationalism for several years now. The bourgeois and conservative social class that emerged during his rule continues to support him. During the AK Party's tenure, the number of construction companies has increased by 43% in 10 years. The turnover of the industry has exploded, peaking at 126 billion euros in 2017. But now this system is starting to crumble. It is precisely these construction companies and the authorities who are held responsible for the consequences of the devastating earthquake that hit southern Turkey in February.
New apartment blocks collapsed in the quake like a house of cards. These fragile new buildings did not always meet the standards for earthquake-resistant construction. Building permits were often obtained by bribery. A few developers were arrested to appease the population's anger. But on a political level, no one has suffered any consequences. Reporting on corruption in Turkey is a risky business. According to Reporters Without Borders, Turkey is one of the most repressive countries in the world regarding the media.
Many journalists have been arrested. Barış Terkoğlu knows Turkish prisons only too well. The investigative journalist spent two years of his life behind bars. This morning, he's preparing for his next trial. When a journalist like me writes about corruption in the state, there's a risk of being sued and arrested. I've already been arrested twice. It means that your reputation is damaged and you'll be targeted by the pro-government press, the Islamic Brotherhood, or the criminal organizations supported by the president of the republic.
So, yes, being a journalist in Turkey is dangerous. Terkulu is a best-selling author. His books make the rulers very uncomfortable. This book is one of the best-selling books in Turkey. It's the second volume of a series of books researching those in power. The first volume, Metastasis, has sold about 400,000 copies. With the second volume, we're already over 200,000 copies and is currently one of the best-selling books, but also the book that attracts the most complaints. In his books, Terkulu denounces the
infiltration of the state by Islamist sects. He reports how Erdogan has enabled them to establish themselves at the heart of the system in strategic positions in the army and police. On the way to court, the journalist describes an extremely corrupt system to us. Many skyscrapers have been built during Erdogan's reign, most of them by companies close to the government. Building bridges is another way for these companies to get rich. Companies that win a bid to build a bridge are often very close to the government. The government also guarantees a minimum number of paid crossings.
This means that the provider continues to make money from tolls after completing the bridge, but it's not just drivers who pay, it's also the state due to this guarantee. That's 770 million euros per year alone for the most recently built bridge, the Sultan Selim Bridge. Tercoolu and other bold journalists want to know what the state is getting in return for the extortionate sums they provide to the president's business friends. In 2014, when some members of the government were under investigation for corruption, recordings of compromising phone conversations attributed to Erdogan and his son Bilal surfaced on the internet.
Bilal, there's an anti-corruption investigation, right? Right. They'll be doing a house search, do you understand? Listen, whatever you've got in your house, get rid of it. Got it? What do you mean, father? There's only cash in the safe. That's what I mean. Bilal allegedly called his father back a few hours later. Good evening. Did you get rid of everything? Not all of it, not yet, father. Let me explain. There are still 30 million euros we can't hide.
The Erdogan family later complained about the conspiracy and the investigation was stopped. Judges and police officers investigating the case were transferred or imprisoned. Since then, journalists like Tercoolu who research corruption have been systematically prosecuted. The state has filed 33 lawsuits against his latest work and he faces up to 158 years in prison. How do I feel? I'm so to it now I don't feel anything anymore. In front of the court, we are monitored by plainclothes police officers who listen in on the entire interview.
You know, there has never been justice in Turkey. Today is not a decisive hearing, but the judiciary in Turkey is so politicized that the outcome of such a trial is bound to be biased. The hearing yields nothing concrete, but Terkolu suspects that it will not be his last. Erdogan's other major project is to advance the Islamization of society. Since taking office, he has been busy breaking down the secular character of Ataturk's Republic. In 2013, he lifted the ban on headscarves in the civil service and in schools. In his 20 years of office, he's fortified the Diyanet, the powerful
religious affairs authority, increasing its budget 20-fold to 1 billion euros in 2018. It's expected to rise to 1.6 billion euros in 2023. Erdogan fulfilled one of his greatest promises in July 2020, turning the Aya Sophia, which had been a museum since 1934, into a mosque again. The Byzantine mosaics are now hidden behind white cloth. When the supreme head of the Diyanet, Imam Ali Erbas, climbs the pulpit, he does so like an Ottoman conqueror with a scimitar in his hand.
My honorable Muslim brothers and sisters, Erdogan is in the front row, listening attentively to his Imam's politicized sermon. All over the world, mosques are being attacked, forcibly closed, even bombed or destroyed. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has had more than 14,000 new mosques built since 2003. His flagship project, the mega mosque Çamlıca, is built right on the Bosphorus. It cost 280 million euros, and its Imam is very proud of this place of worship. As you can see, it was built true to the Ottoman style of architecture. Measured
by the height and the width of the dome, it's the largest mosque in Turkey, maybe even in the world. As far as the architecture of religious buildings goes, it's the top of the league. We can say that thanks to the Turks, Islam has found its true identity. For anyone who openly opposes Erdoğan's religious project, the consequences can be severe. Zahra Pola, playing here with her son on a beach in the south of the country, has had a bitter experience. I like this country very much, its natural beauty and climate.
The problem is some of the people who live around me. I don't have a problem with them, but they have one with me. Paula is an activist in the Association of Atheism in Turkey. She's been threatened by the clergy because of her public statements and lives in constant fear of attack. I'm afraid for my own safety and for my son. I always keep an eye on him even if I'm just sitting here and he's playing. Paula was forced to leave the capital, but she still hasn't given up her activism. Tonight she has an appointment in Izmir, the third largest city in the country.
It's a laid-back coastal city on the Aegean Sea. It's also a stronghold of the Kemalist left. In this suburb, Paula is looking for Kahraman's Cafe. He's a man who, like her, is being pressured by the clergy. Mr. Kahraman. Welcome. For years we've only met virtually. Now we're meeting in person. Yes, we've never met, but she's always supported me. We've communicated a lot over social media. Feels strange now.
Kahraman is not just a cafe owner. He's also a high school history teacher. He had the audacity to show his students Cosmos, a documentary about the origin of the universe, which the religious authorities did not like. Of course, people can be very religious, but they should also be able to think and reflect for themselves. You can be devout and enlightened at the same time. Of course, but once you start asking questions, you quickly start doubting. Yes, little by little you lose your religious certainties and become less naive. After showing the film to his students, Kahraman got into trouble with the education authorities.
They accused me of showing a documentary about atheism in the country where 97% of the population is Muslim. Since I was sure I'd be fired, I opened a cafe and called it Cosmos. The vast majority of Kahraman's students support him. This documentary presents facts supported by the international scientific literature. Showing the film does not contradict religion. This is not propaganda. We've all learned a lot from him. Personally, I think he's helped us to structure our thoughts better. President Erdogan is pushing Islamization, harassing the press, and putting political opponents under pressure. But he has less of a grip on the severe
economic crisis affecting the country. He may have always had overwhelming majorities in rural areas, but now people can barely afford to eat, and he's losing popularity there, despite winning the latest election. Rize on the Black Sea is where the president's family comes from. Come on, girls. Yildiz and her family have been growing tea for generations. Harvesting the tea leaves with shears is exhausting work. According to official figures, inflation is galloping at 64%, but independent economists say it's closer to 140%.
This is making it difficult for Yildiz and her family to get by. For some years now, we have been earning much less. We don't make enough money anymore. Living costs have gone up so much. My husband is retired, but he still has to work. If he didn't work, we wouldn't make it. We have only a small plantation. We harvest just 2.5 tons of tea per year. And then we have to pay for the fertilizer, the gasoline, the workers' wages. In the end, there is nothing left. Not a cent.
The economic crisis is caused partly by Erdogan's poor economic policy decisions. Anger is growing among the farmers and the working class. Do you expect any help from the state? No. What should the state give us? We will keep working, keep growing our tea, harvesting our crops and vegetables. I still have hope. Really? Hope is a good thing. We're a strong country and a strong people. If we manage to join forces and believe in ourselves, together as a country and a people, then we can move mountains.
