It is important to focus on the lives and roles of these two political leaders of the AKP since the life-spans of political leaders in Turkey have always been longer than their own political parties. While Turkey is a graveyard of political parties, political leaders rarely retire and hardly die. This is very much the outcome of the personality-centric aspect of Turkish political culture. Thus, political leaders are more significant than ideologies or party programs. Leaders are likely to be turned into a Sultan and they govern their own parties as their own domain. This de-institutionalized aspect of political parties encourages us to focus on key personalities, especially Erdoğan and Gül. Moreover, oppressed or marginalized masses tend to turn “victimized” political leaders into resistance heroes. It is very important to study the biographies of Erdoğan and Gül to understand not only their reconstruction in the social memory of Anatolian people but also the meaning of what they represent for ordinary people. Moreover, the social roots, socialization and ideological evolution of the two men might open new avenues to understand the social transformation of Turkey itself. Their life stories and changing ideological positions reflect the transformation of the Islamic movement and an evolving Turkey.

When I was going from Pendik to Kartal, I asked a taxi driver what he thinks about Erdoğan. He said “Kasımpaşalı kabadayı olarak gitti, Etilerli olarak dönüyor” (He went as a kabadayı of Kasımpaşa but returned as a man of Etiler).