He was asked which were some of the most defining moments in his personal and political life.
"One of the key ones would be the 1997 'soft coup' that happened against Necmettin Erbakan and his party when they were in power where the military put an ultimatum to them".
Erbakan did not resign and for Erdogan this was a valuable political lesson in what to avoid.
"He learned that you needed to have a much more flexible position", underscored Dr Tittensor.
Another key moment according to Dr Tittensor, when Erdogan was jailed in 1998, whilst being the Mayor of Istanbul, for inciting religious hatred when he recited a poem that compares mosques to military barracks. This instilled in Erdogan the feeling of being politically persecuted.
Described by some political analysts as volatile and irate, Erdogan according to Dr Tittensor is a very shrewd political operative who believes in political expediency.
"Certainly I think that he can be bombastic, quite willing to play the populist card and try to whip up the crowd but, at the same time he is a very cunning and canny political operator", said Dr Tittensor.
As to whether Erdogan's grip in power is slipping Dr Tittensor, noted that certainly some of "the shine has come off" but, quickly added that we shouldn't be "writing eulogies at this stage".
