With rock-star charisma, Erdogan enchants Turks

By Stuart Williams and Dilay Gundogan

ISTANBUL, Turkey - A tiny speck on a distant stage but magnified many times larger than life on multiple big screens, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan shouts one of his favourite slogans: "Durmak yok!" ("There is no stopping!")

"Durmak yooooook!" yells back the crowd at the election rally in response, as Erdogan greets their cheers with a wave of the hand.

Erdogan prowls round the stage with a microphone and works the crowd like a touring rock star, mercilessly ridiculing political opponents and boasting of his achievements from over a decade in office.

It's over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) under blistering afternoon sunshine at a vast outdoor sports complex in Maltepe, a remote suburb a long trip from the centre of Istanbul.

Yet hundreds of thousands have given their weekend afternoon to hear Erdogan's only rally in Istanbul for his campaign to move to the office of president in August 10 elections.

A sea of people, brandishing flags with the words "Erdogan, a man of the people" and white free handout Erdogan baseball caps, extends as far as the eye can see.

Erdogan has already won three legislative elections, obliterating his opponents on each occasion. He appears set to do the same in the presidential polls.

At the heart of his appeal lies an extraordinary political charisma which his rivals have yet to find a means to counter.

"May God take years off my life and give them to Erdogan," says Birgul Sevan, a housewife, 42, as she watches him speak.

Vendors around the rally sell football scarves with Erdogan's face on them. A pop song by one of Turkey's best known crooners Ugur Isilak -- with the chorus simply "Recep Tayyip Erdooogaaaan" -- blares out through the loudspeakers.

Making no effort to hide the rigours of campaigning on his larynx, Erdogan's voice is hoarse and sometimes creaks into a squeaky falsetto.

At the end, he and his wife Emine throw bottles of cold water towards outstretched hands in the crowd.

'Old Turkey, New Turkey'

The people at the rally are for the most part Erdogan's core supporters: religiously more conservative Turks who have seen greater prosperity thanks to the economic stability enjoyed by Turkey since his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) first came to power in 2002.

In every speech, Erdogan divides recent Turkish history into "Old Turkey," when politics was dominated by the secular elite, and the "New Turkey" of his AKP.

He portrays himself as the leader who gets things done for ordinary people, be it new roads up and down the country, the Marmaray tunnel that allows a metro to zip under the Bosphorus or the new Ankara-Istanbul high speed train.

He addresses the crowd on countless occasions as "my friends", emphasising that he is one of them, the boy from the run-down Istanbul district of Kasimpasa who made good.

"He is a man of great vision and his goals are not for himself, but for us. He has built roads, hospitals, airports, universities and promises to work even more when he is the president," said housewife Sevan.

In a country still feeling for its position on the world stage after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Erdogan also impresses Turks by making them feel their nation is a world power and a dominant force in the Muslim world.

Erdogan, who famously once walked out of a World Economic Forum debate featuring Shimon Peres when he was Israeli president, in every election speech lashes out at Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip and says only he among Muslim leaders stands up for the Palestinians.

"It is thanks to Erdogan the whole world respects us. He has made Turkey an important country and has given the Turkish people their confidence back. I pray for him every day," said Erdogan Karacabey, 43, self-employed.

'Alienated by the elite'

Ali Carkoglu, expert on electoral behaviour and professor of political science at Koc University, said that the key to Erdogan's success was his appeal to people who had felt ignored by the traditional Turkish political elite up to 2002.

"Erdogan tells his supporters they are the real owners of the government after years of being alienated by Turkey's secular elite.

"He constantly reminds them that they had been ignored, oppressed and belittled and if he doesn't get elected, they will again be left out," he said.

Opposition to Erdogan may be a minority but those who will vote against him in the polls are tired not just of his pro-Islam policies but also of his sometimes Sultan-like behaviour.

"I am sure about who I am not going to vote for: Erdogan. He portrays himself as a chosen divine being and uses his rhetoric to imply that the country would fall apart in his absence," said Yavuz Semerci, columnist at Haberturk newspaper.