Politics & Power Quote by Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Erdogan is doing something rare for a head of state who trades in grievance politics: he’s granting his audience a harsh diagnosis, then immediately controlling where the blame can and can’t go. Calling development a “marathon” is a quiet rhetorical masterstroke. It frames global modernity as a long, exhausting race with a single scoreboard, not a messy contest of different histories and priorities. The line “left behind” carries both shame and urgency, a paternal scolding aimed at publics who are accustomed to hearing that humiliation comes mainly from outside.

Then comes the pivot: “there is a tendency to blame others.” On paper, it’s self-critique. In practice, it’s an argument for discipline and centralization. If the problem is a culture of excuse-making, the implied solution is tougher, more decisive leadership that can override old habits and vested interests. That subtext fits Erdogan’s political brand: modernization framed as moral renewal, with the state as the engine and the critic-in-chief.

Context matters. Erdogan has often toggled between defiant anti-Western rhetoric and pragmatic appeals to reform, investment, and global competitiveness. This quote sits in the latter mode, useful for speaking to international audiences wary of Islamist populism, and to domestic audiences he wants to mobilize around national ambition rather than fatalism. It also neatly sidesteps a more dangerous admission: that “left behind” is not only about blaming outsiders, but about institutions, rights, and governance choices made at home. By naming scapegoating as the vice, he positions himself as the corrective - while keeping the ultimate story of decline and redemption firmly under his control.