Episode 1

Growing up at a time of chronic political turbulence in Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan joins an Islamist party and becomes hugely popular as mayor of Istanbul. In the 1990s, Turkish politics is bitterly divided on the question of religion and politics, so when the party Erdogan belongs to is shut down, Erdogan is sent to jail and banned from being an MP for life.

In prison, Erdogan plots an astonishing comeback, creating a new, more moderate party which sweeps to power in 2002. It overturns his ban from politics and makes him prime minister.

In his early years in power, Erdogan transforms Turkey, gaining ever more support at home and abroad. But he knows that to feel safe in power, he needs to deal with the all-powerful military. He forms an alliance with a cleric, Fethullah Gulen, and together they plot to remove hundreds of high-ranking officers and judges, and replace them with followers of Gulen.

After ten years of Erdogan’s rule, a demonstration about plans to redevelop Gezi Park in Istanbul becomes a massive protest movement that threatens to topple his government.