Turkey's strongman is looking weaker... even in his own backyard

Everyone has shaken Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s hand in his ancestral hometown. But protests suggest his presidency is now not so popular.

- Ruth Michaelson and Ayça Aldatmaz report from Rize

Two gigantic portraits of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tower over Rize town square on Turkey's Black Sea coast. The president looks younger than his 71 years, with poreless skin and a slight smile, framed by the crimson of the Turkish flag and the gold stars of the presidential seal.

In Rize, Erdoğan’s ancestral hometown, locals say the president is a phone call away. "Sure there are problems," says Ali Karaca, a hotel owner. "But when you meet him in person you get that sincerity, that warmth. I know that if I am subject to some injustice, the moment I reach Erdoğan, that will be resolved."

For the 22 years that Erdoğan has ruled Turkey, he has counted on backing from small towns and cities like Rize that dot the Black Sea shore. Presidential elections are set to be held in three years’ time, if not sooner; victory would extend his rule to 2033 and a full three decades in power.

But in recent months, his grip on power has been tested, even in his heartland. Erdoğan claimed that his economic reforms would spur production. Instead, they have tipped the country into financial crisis, raising the cost of living and doing business.

The arrest in March of his main rival, Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, prompted the biggest anti-government protests in more than a decade, including rare demonstrations in Rize. With protesters taking to the streets in his family's hometown, Erdoğan's efforts to keep control could have backfired, even in a place considered the epicentre of his support.

Rize has been shaped by Erdoğan's rise. In 2018, he inaugurated a nine-mile highway tunnel linking the coastline to a town deep inland by cutting through a mountain, and a logistics port is planned nearby - all of which could have gone to the far larger city of Trabzon.