| His Excellency Recep Tayyip Erdoğan MP |
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|---|---|
| 25th Prime Minister of Turkey | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 14 March 2003 |
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| President | Ahmet Necdet Sezer Abdullah Gül |
| Deputy |
See list
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| Preceded by | Abdullah Gül |
| Leader of the Justice and Development Party | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 14 August 2001 |
|
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Member of Parliament for İstanbul |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 22 July 2007 |
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| Constituency | 1st electoral district |
| Member of Parliament for Siirt |
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| In office 9 March 2003 – 22 July 2007 |
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| Constituency | Siirt Province |
| Mayor of Istanbul | |
| In office 27 March 1994 – 6 November 1998 |
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| Preceded by | Nurettin Sözen |
| Succeeded by | Ali Müfit Gürtuna |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 February 1954 Istanbul, Turkey |
| Political party | Justice and Development Party (2001–present) |
| Other political affiliations |
National Salvation Party (Before 1981) Welfare Party (1983–1998) |
| Spouse(s) | Emine Gülbaran (1978–present) |
| Children | Ahmet Burak Necmettin Bilal Esra Sümeyye |
| Alma mater | Marmara University |
| Religion | Islam – Sunni |
| Signature | |
| Website | Prime Ministry of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan website |
| This article is part of a series on Recep Tayyip Erdoğan |
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|---|---|
| Early life and career · Electoral history First cabinet · Second cabinet · Third cabinet Civil–military ties · Democratic initiative Foreign policy · Foreign trips · 2023 vision Justice and Development Party |
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| Gallery: Picture, Sound, Video | |
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (IPA: [ɾe̞ˈd͡ʒe̞p t̪äjˈjip ˈæɾd̪oän]; born 26 February 1954) has been Prime Minister of Turkey since 2003 and is chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which holds a majority of the seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Erdoğan served as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He graduated in 1981 from Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Commercial Sciences. Erdoğan was also a semi-professional footballer from 1969 to 1982. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the only Prime Minister of Turkey who usually goes by his first name.
Erdoğan was elected Mayor of Istanbul in the local elections of 27 March 1994. He was banned from office and sentenced to a prison term for reciting a poem during a public address in the province of Siirt on 12 December 1997. The poem was allegedly quoted from a book published by a state enterprise and one that had been recommended to teachers by the Ministry of Education.[1][2] After six months in prison, Erdoğan established the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on August 14, 2001. From its first year, the AK Party became the largest publicly-supported political movement in Turkey. In the general election of 2002 the AK Party won nearly two-thirds of the seats in parliament, forming the first single-party government for 19 years.[3]
As prime minister, Erdoğan implemented numerous reforms. 45 years after Turkey signed an Association Agreement with the EU, the negotiations for Turkey's accession to the EU started during Erdoğan's tenure. Parallel to this, inflation, which had for decades adversely affected the country's economy, was brought under control and the Turkish Lira regained its former prestige through the elimination of six zeros.
Interest rates were reduced and per capita income grew significantly. The AK party won the elections of 2007 making it the first time in 52 years that a party in power had increased its votes for a second term.[4] In the 2011 general election, the AK Party was re-elected for a third term and Erdoğan remained Prime Minister.
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Erdoğan was born in the Kasımpaşa neighborhood of Istanbul to a family that had moved there from Rize Province. When he visited Georgia on 11 August 2004, he said I'm a Georgian too, my family is Georgian family, migrated from Batumi to Rize.[5] However, Turkish historian Cezmi Yurtsever claims Erdoğan's family actually descends from the family of Bagatlı Recep, a large Muslim Turkish family that was settled around Trabzon after Mehmed II's conquest of the city.[6] Bagatlı Recep died in 1916 fighting against the invading Russian and Armenian forces.[6]
Erdoğan spent his early childhood in Rize, where his father was a member of the Turkish Coast Guard.[1] The family returned to Istanbul when Erdoğan was 13 years old.[1] As a teenager, he sold lemonade and sesame buns (simit) on the streets of Istanbul's rougher districts to earn extra money.[1] Brought up in a observant Muslim family, he graduated from Kasımpaşa Piyale primary school in 1965 and from Istanbul Religious Vocational High School in 1973 (İmam Hatip school). He received his high school diploma from Eyüp High School. He studied Business Administration at Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences (now it is known as Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences).[7]
In his youth, Erdoğan played semi-professional football at a local club.[7][8][9] The stadium of the local football club of the district he grew up in, Kasımpaşa S.K. is named after him.
Erdoğan married Emine Gülbaran (b. 1955, Siirt), whom he met during a conference, on 4 July 1978.[10] The couple have two sons (Ahmet Burak, Necmeddin Bilal) and two daughters (Esra, Sümeyye).[10]
While studying business administration at what is today Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences and playing semi-professional football, Erdoğan engaged in politics by joining the National Turkish Student Union, an anti-communist action group. In 1974 he wrote, directed and played the lead role in the play Maskomya, which presented Freemasonry, Communism and Judaism as evil.[11] In 1976, he became the head of Beyoğlu youth branch of the Islamist National Salvation Party (MSP).[12] That same year, he was promoted to the position of chair for the Istanbul youth branch of the party.
After the 1980 military coup, Erdoğan followed most of Erbakan's followers into the Welfare Party. He became the party’s Beyoglu district chair in 1984, and in 1985 he became the chair of the Istanbul city branch. He was elected to parliament in 1991, but barred from taking his seat.
In the local elections of March 27, 1994 Erdoğan was elected Mayor of Istanbul, the social and economic capital of Turkey and one of the biggest metropolitan areas of the world. He won a plurality (25.19%) of the popular vote. Many feared that he would impose Islamic law, however, he was pragmatic in office, tackling such chronic problems in Istanbul as water shortage, pollution and traffic chaos. The water shortage problem was solved with the laying of hundreds of kilometers of new pipelines. The garbage problem was solved with the establishment of state-of-the-art recycling facilities. While Erdoğan was in office, air pollution was reduced through a plan developed to switch to natural gas. He changed the public buses with environmentally friendly buses. The city's traffic and transportation jams were ameliorated with more than fifty bridges, viaducts, and highways. Erdoğan prohibited the sale of alcohol in city-owned facilities, but later this measure was reversed. While taking precautions to prevent corruption, he took measures to ensure that municipal funds were used prudently. He paid back a major portion of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's two billion dollar debt when he took office and meanwhile invested four billion dollars in the city.[13]
Erdoğan initiated the first roundtable of mayors during the Istanbul conference, which led to a global, organized movement of mayors. A seven member international jury from the United Nations unanimously found Erdoğan deserving the UN-HABITAT award.[14]
Before his conviction, the Welfare Party was declared unconstitutional and was shut down by the Turkish constitutional court on the grounds of threatening the secular order in Turkey. Erdoğan became a constant speaker at the demonstrations held by his party colleagues.[15]
He was given a ten month prison sentence (of which he served six months) for reciting a poem in Siirt in December 1997, which, under article 312/2 of the Turkish penal code was regarded as an incitement to commit an offense and incitement to religious or racial hatred.[16] It included verses translated as "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers...."[1] The aforementioned verses, however, are not in the original version of the poem.[2] The poem was from a work written by Ziya Gökalp, a pan-Turkish activist of the early 20th century.[17] Erdoğan claimed the poem had been approved by the education ministry to be published in textbooks.[18] With the conviction, Erdoğan was forced to give up his mayoral position. The conviction also stipulated a political ban, which prevented him from participating in parliamentary elections. He completed his sentence on 24 July 1999.
In 2001, Erdoğan established the Justice and Development Party.[19] The AK Party won a landslide victory in the 2002 election, taking nearly two-thirds of the seats. However, Erdoğan could not became prime minister right away, as he was still banned from politics by the judiciary for his speech in Siirt; Gül thus became the prime minister instead. In December 2002 the Supreme Election Board canceled the general election results from Siirt due to voting irregularities and scheduled a new election for 9 February 2003. By this time, party leader Erdoğan was able to run for Parliament thanks to a legal change made possible by the opposition Republican People’s Party. The AK Party duly listed Erdoğan as a candidate for the rescheduled Siirt election, and he won, becoming prime minister after Gül subsequently handed over the post.
Erdoğan's government instituted several democratic reforms. He gave the European Court of Human Rights supremacy over Turkish courts, reduced the powers of the 1991 Anti-Terror Law which had constrained Turkey’s democratization, and abolished many restrictions on freedom of speech and the press. The government planned several times to replace the Turkish Constitution of 1982 with a more democratic "civil constitution", but the main opposition party CHP did not want to participate.
During a visit to Bishkek he stated that "We currently already have a semi-presidential system. There is a strong presidency."[20]
In 2009, the Turkish government under Prime Minister Erdoğan announced a plan to help end the quarter-century-long Turkey – Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict that has cost more than 40,000 lives. The government's plan, supported by the European Union, allowed the Kurdish language to be used in all broadcast media and political campaigns, and restore Kurdish names to cities and towns that have been given Turkish ones.[21] “We took a courageous step to resolve chronic issues that constitute an obstacle along Turkey's development, progression and empowerment”, Erdoğan said regarding the matter.[21]Erdogan passed a partial amnesty to reduce penalties faced by many members of the Kurdish terrorist organization PKK who had surrendered to the government. On 23 November 2011, he apologised on behalf of the state for the 1937 Dersim massacre of Kurds during a televised meeting of his party in Ankara. [22]
In 2002, Erdoğan inherited a Turkish economy deep in recession due to the financial crisis during the coalition government under the leadership of Ecevit. Erdoğan supported Finance Minister Ali Babacan in enforcing macro-economic policies. Erdoğan tried to attract more foreign investors to Turkey and lifted most of government regulations, with the average GDP growth rate 7.3% during his premiership as he presided over a record 26 quarters of economic growth.[23]
Since 1961, Turkey has begun 19 IMF loan accords. Erdoğan's government satisfied the budgetary and market requirements of the two on his watch and received every loan installment, the only time any government has ever done so.[24] Erdoğan inherited a debt of $23.5 billion to the IMF, which has been reduced to $6.1 billion in 2010. He decided not to sign a new deal. Turkey's debt to the IMF will be completely paid off in 2013.[25]
In 2010, Five-year credit default swaps for Turkey's sovereign debt were trading at a record low of 1.17%, below those of nine EU member countries and Russia. The unemployment rate decreased from 10.3% to 9.7% in 2007. Along with the global economic crisis of 2008, Turkey’s unemployment rate jumped to a record high of 16.1% in the January–March period of 2009. In the April–June period of 2010, the unemployment decreased again to 11.0%, compared to 10.0% in the eurozone.[26]
In 2002, the Turkish Central Bank had $26.5 billion in reserves. This amount reached $92.2 billion in 2011. In the same period, inflation fell from 34.9% to 5.7%, the lowest in 39 years. [27] The public debt as percentage of annual gross domestic product declined from 74% in 2002 to 39% in 2009.
The World Bank praised Erdoğan for the courageous reforms and the economic stability in the country.[28]
On March 2006, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) for the first time in Turkey's history held a press conference and publicly protest the obstruction of the appointment of judges to the high courts for over 10 months. It claimed Erdoğan wanted to fill the vacant posts with his own appointees which Erdoğan was accused of creating a rift with the Turkey's highest court of appeals (the Yargıtay) and high administrative court (the Danıştay). Erdoğan claimed that the constitution gave power of assigning members to his elected party.[29]
In May 2007, the head of Turkey's High Court asked prosecutors to consider whether Erdoğan should be charged over critical comments regarding the election of Abdullah Gül as president.[29] Erdoğan said the ruling was "a disgrace to the justice system", and criticized the Constitutional Court which had invalidated a presidential vote because a boycott of other parties meant there was no quorum. Prosecutors have already investigated his earlier comments, including saying it had fired a "bullet at democracy". Tülay Tuğcu, head of the Constitutional Court, condemned Erdoğan for "threats, insults and hostility" towards the justice system.[29] The Turkish parliament agreed to reduce the age of candidacy to the parliament from 30 to 25 and abolished the death penalty in all instances, including war time.
On April 2006, Erdoğan unveiled a social security reform package demanded by the International Monetary Fund under a loan deal. He claimed that the move, which was passed with fierce opposition, was one of the most radical reforms. Turkey’s three social security bodies were united under one roof, bringing equal health services and retirement benefits for members of all three bodies. Under the second bill, everyone under the age of 18 years old will be entitled to free health services, irrespective of whether they pay premiums to any social security organization or not. The bill also envisages a gradual increase in the retirement age. Starting from 2036, the retirement age will increase to 65 by 2048 for both men and women.[30] The government unified three systems of hospitals and insurance for different professions that were criticized for offering unequal benefits and reserving the best hospitals for civil servants while others waited in long queues.
On January 2008, the Turkish Parliament adopted a law on a complete prohibition of smoking in most public places. Erdoğan is outspokenly anti-smoking.[31]
In 2008, Erdoğan commented that to ensure that the Turkish population remains young, every family would need to have at least three children.[32][33] He has repeated this statement on numerous occasions.[34] As of 2010, Turkey's population is estimated at 73,700,000, with a growth rate of 1.21% per annum (2009 figure).[35]
Erdoğan was named "The European of the Year 2004" by the European Voice Organization for the reforms in his country. He said in a comment that "Turkey's accession shows that Europe is a continent where civilisations reconcile and not clash." [36] On 3 October 2005, the negotiations for Turkey's accession to the EU formally started during Erdoğan's tenure as Prime Minister.[37]
Erdoğan is a co-founder of the Alliance of Civilizations (AOC). The AOC initiative was proposed by the Prime Minister of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, at the 59th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in 2005. The initiative seeks to galvanize international action against extremism through the forging of international, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue and cooperation.
During Erdoğan's Prime Ministership, relations with Greece have been normalized. Political and economic relations are much improved. In 2007, Erdoğan and Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis met on the bridge over the Evros River at the border between Greece and Turkey, for the inauguration of the Greek-Turkish natural gas pipeline, linking the longtime Aegean rivals through a project that will give Caspian gas its first direct Western outlet and help ease Russia's energy dominance.[38]
Turkey and Greece signed an agreement to create a Combined Joint Operational Unit within the framework of NATO to participate in Peace Support Operations.[39] Erdoğan and his party strongly supported the EU backed referendum of Cyprus, 2004 to reunify the island.[40]
Under Erdoğan, Iraq and Turkey signed 48 trade agreements by the Iraqi-Turkish Strategic Council in Baghdad. Agreements signed included sectors of security, energy, oil, electricity, water, health, trade, environment, transport, housing, construction, agriculture, education, higher education, and defense. The Turkish government mended relations with Iraqi Kurdistan by opening a Turkish university in Arbil, and a Turkish consulate in Mosul.[41] Abdullah Gül became the first Turkish head of state to visit Iraq in 33 years, on 23 March 2009.
Erdoğan paid a state visit to Israel in 2005, bringing along a delegation of businessmen to further economic ties.[43] The President of Israel Shimon Peres addressed the Turkish parliament during a visit in 2007, the first time an Israeli leader had addressed the legislature of a predominantly Muslim nation.[44]
At the 2009 World Economic Forum conference, the debate became heated in relation to the Gaza conflict. Israeli President Shimon Peres responded to Erdoğan's claims, stating that Turkey would have done the same if rockets had been hitting Istanbul.[45] Erdoğan was interrupted by the moderator while he was responding to Peres. Erdoğan stated: "Mister Peres, you are older than I am. Maybe you are feeling guilty and that is why you are raising your voice. When it comes to killing you know it too well. I remember the children who was killed on beaches..." Upon the moderator's reminder that they needed to adjourn for dinner, Erdoğan left the panel, accusing the moderator of giving Peres more time than all the other panelists combined.[46]
Following the Gaza flotilla raid in May 2010, tension between the two countries dramatically mounted. Erdoğan strongly condemned the raid, describing it as "state terrorism", calling for Israeli leaders responsible to apologize. Erdoğan has described Israel as "the main threat to regional peace", and has called for Israel's nuclear facilities to come under IAEA inspection.[47] Erdoğan accused Israel of turning Gaza into an "open-air prison".[48]
For centuries, Turkey and Russia have been rivals for regional supremacy. With the rise of the Erdoğan government, the two countries have realised that friendly relations are in the interest of both. Accordingly, co-operation rather than rivalry appears to dominate the ties. In 2002, trade between Turkey and Russia was worth some $5 billion. By the end of 2010, this figure reached almost $30 billion.
In December 2004, President Putin visited Turkey. This was the first Presidential visit in the history of Turkish-Russian relations besides that of the Chairman of the Presidium, Nikolai Podgorny in 1972. In November 2005, Putin attended the inauguration of a jointly constructed Blue Stream natural gas pipeline in Turkey. This sequence of top-level visits has brought several important bilateral issues to the forefront. The two countries consider it their strategic goal to achieve "multidimensional co-operation", especially in the fields of energy, transport and the military. Specifically, Russia aims to invest in Turkey’s fuel and energy industries, and it also expects to participate in tenders for the modernisation of Turkey’s military.[49]
President Medvedev described Turkey as “one of our most important partners with respect to regional and international issues... We can confidently say that Russian-Turkish relations have advanced to the level of a multidimensional strategic partnership.”[50]
On 12 May 2010, Ankara and Moscow signed 17 agreements to enhance cooperation in energy and other fields, including pacts to build Turkey’s first nuclear power plant and furthering plans for an oil pipeline from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The leaders of both countries have also signed an agreement on visa-free travel. Tourists will be able to get into the country for free and stay there for up to 30 days.[51]
Diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia were established in 1929. In recent years importance has been given to regional issues and to the improvement of bilateral relations to strengthen political, economic and military ties.[52]
In August 2006, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz as-Saud made a visit to Turkey. This was the first visit by a Saudi monarch to Turkey in last four decades. The monarch made a second visit, on 9 November 2007. Turk-Saudi trade volume has exceeded US$ 3.2 billion in 2006, almost double the figure achieved in 2003. In 2009, this amount reached US$ 5.5 billion and the goal for the year 2010 was US$ 10 billion.[53] Trade is expected to increase even more, as the strategic locations of both countries translate into economies which are in a position to supplement each other.[54]
During Erdoğan's term of office, the diplomatic relations between Turkey and Syria have significantly improved. In 2004, President Bashar al-Assad arrived in Turkey for the first official visit by a Syrian President in 57 years. In late 2004, Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan signed a free trade agreement with Syria. The visa restrictions between the two countries have been lifted in 2009, which caused an economic boom in the regions near the Syrian border.[55] In 2011, the relationship between the two countries has strained again mostly due to the 2011 Syrian uprising.[56]
In 2011, a severe drought was affecting the entire East Africa region.[57] Said to be "the worst in 60 years",[58] the drought has caused a severe food crisis that threatened the livelihood of more than 12 million people in Somalia and neighbouring countries.[59] On August 19, 2011, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan went to Somalia to draw international attention to the East African country's drought and famine situation. He became the first leader from outside Africa to visit Somalia in nearly two decades. Erdogan, who was accompanied on the trip by his wife, daughter and an entourage consisting of cabinet members and their families, visited refugee camps and hospitals in Somalia to witness the devastation caused by the severe drought.
Turkey will open an embassy in Mogadishu and take several measures to help Somalia improve its infrastructure, which include digging wells to improve water supply, building a major hospital, six field hospitals and a highway from the Mogadishu Airport to the city center, as well as facilities for waste management to clean up Mogadishu's rubbish-strewn streets, Erdoğan said. He said Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ) will also build houses and schools in the famine-hit country.
A week later, the Turkish Prime Ministry Disaster & Emergency Management Directorate said that Turkish people collected a total of $201 million in donations for Somalia since the aid campaign started August 1. Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was quoted in the Hurriyet newspaper as calling Prime Minister Erdogan's visit to Somalia an “historic gesture.”[60]
Erdoğan had made his first 3 days official visit to Egypt on 12 September 2011, he was accompanied with six ministers and a fleet of 200 businessmen.[61] This visit is considered as a diplomatic success, as it was made very soon after Turkey had ejected Israeli ambassadors, cut all diplomatic and bilateral military agreements.[61] because Israel has refused to apologize for the Gaza flotilla attack which killed Turkish and American humanitarian worker aboard an aid convoy headed to Gaza.[61] and with in last 15 years and after Egypt Revolution of 2011, this is the first visit by a Prime Minister of Turkey.[61][62]
Erdoğan's visit to Egypt was met with much enthusiasm by Egyptians. Even though it was midnight, Cairo traffic was reported to be jammed as thousands rushed to welcome the Turkish Prime Minister with Turkish flags. CNN reported some Egyptians saying "We consider him as the Islamic leader in the Middle East", while others were appreciative of his role in supporting Gaza.[61] Erdoğan was later honored in Tahrir Square by members of the Egyptian Revolution Youth Union, and members of the Turkish embassy were presented with a coat of arms in acknowledgment of the Prime Minister’s support of the Egyptian Revolution.[63] His visit also brought criticism from Middle Eastern Christians when he drew comparisons in a speech between the fall of Mubarak and the Fall of Constantinople, describing the Byzantine Empire as a "dark civilization".[64][65]
When asked in an interview with Mona Al Shazly on Dream TV, Erdogan stated that he recommends secularism for Egypt, the thing which generated rage among Islamic movements, especially the Freedom and Justice party - the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
A week after he left, Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu proclaimed his vision of a strategic alliance between Egypt and Turkey which he described as an “Axis of Democracy”.[63] However, some voiced concerns that the Egyptian revolution was not fulfilled and that Erdoğan was seeking his own country's strategic interests. It was feared that by forming an alliance with the military junta in Egypt during the country’s transition to democracy, Erdoğan may have tipped the balance in favor of those that stand between the Egyptians and their freedom. [63]
When Barack Obama became President of United States, he made his first overseas bilateral meeting to Turkey in April 2009.
At a joint news conference in Turkey, Obama said: "I'm trying to make a statement about the importance of Turkey, not just to the United States but to the world. I think that where there's the most promise of building stronger U.S.-Turkish relations is in the recognition that Turkey and the United States can build a model partnership in which a predominantly Christian nation, a predominantly Muslim nation – a Western nation and a nation that straddles two continents," he continued, "that we can create a modern international community that is respectful, that is secure, that is prosperous, that there are not tensions – inevitable tensions between cultures – which I think is extraordinarily important."[66]
The elections of 2002 were the first elections in which Erdoğan participated as a leader of a party. All parties previously elected to parliament failed to win enough votes to re-enter the parliament. The AK Party won 34.3% of the national vote and formed the new government. Turkish stocks rose more than 7% on Monday morning. Politicians of the previous generation, such as Ecevit, Bahceli, Yılmaz and Çiller, resigned. The second largest party, the CHP, received 19.4% of the votes.
The stage of the elections of 2007 was set for a fight for legitimacy in the eyes of voters between his government and the country's Kemalist opposition. Erdoğan used the events at that took place during the ill-fated Presidential elections a few months earlier as a part of the general election campaign of his party. On 22 July 2007, the AK Party had won an important victory over the opposition, garnering 46.7% of the popular vote. The 22 July elections marked only the second time in the Turkish Republic's history whereby an incumbent governing party won an election by increasing its share of popular support.
On 14 March 2008, Turkey's Chief Prosecutor asked the country's Constitutional Court to ban Erdoğan's governing party.[67] The party escaped a ban on 30 July 2008, a year after winning 46.7% of the vote in national elections, losing 50% of its public funding.[68]
In the 12 June 2011 elections, Erdoğan's governing party won 327 seats (49.83% of the popular vote) making Erdoğan the only prime minister in Turkey's history to win three consecutive general elections, each time receiving more votes than the previous election. The second party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), received 135 seats (25.94%), the nationalist MHP received 53 seats (13.01%), and the Independents received 35 seats (6.58%).[69]
On 14 April 2007, an estimated 300,000 people marched in Ankara to protest the possible candidacy of Erdoğan in the 2007 presidential election, afraid that if elected as President, he would alter the secular nature of the Turkish state.[70] Erdoğan announced on 24 April 2007 that the party had nominated Abdullah Gül as the AK Party candidate in the presidential election.[71] The protests continued over the next several weeks, with over one million reported at a 29 April rally in Istanbul,[72][73] tens of thousands reported at separate protests on 4 May in Manisa and Çanakkale,[74] and one million in İzmir on 13 May.[75]
Early parliamentary elections were called after the failure of the parties in parliament to agree on the next Turkish president. The opposition parties boycotted the parliamentary vote and deadlocked the election process. At the same time, Erdoğan claimed the failure to elect a president was a failure of the Turkish political system and proposed to modify the constitution. Gül was later elected President after the general elections on 22 July 2007 that saw AK Party and Erdoğan brought back to power with 46.7% of the vote. Later in 2007, Turkish constitutional referendum approved with the support of 69% of the voters to modify the constitution to allow the people to elect the President.
In 1994 Erdoğan was elected Mayor of Istanbul, one of the biggest metropolitan areas of the world. He received 25.19% of the popular vote. After the AK Party won the 2002 general elections under the leadership of Erdoğan, it has received more votes in the 2004 local elections. The AK party was the biggest party in 12 out of 16 metropolitan municipality.
The Turkish local elections of 2009 took place during the financial crisis of 2007–2010. In these elections the AK Party received 39% of the vote, 3% less than in the local elections of 2004. The second party CHP received 23% of the vote and the third party MHP received 16% of the vote. The AK Party won in Turkey's largest cities: Ankara and Istanbul.
After the opposition parties deadlocked the 2007 presidential election by boycotting the parliament, the ruling AK party proposed a constitutional reform package. The reform package was first vetoed by president Sezer. Then he applied to the Turkish constituonal court about the reform package, because the president is unable to veto amendments for the second time. The Turkish constituonal court did not find any problems in the packet and 68.95% of the voters supported the constitutional changes.
The reforms consisted of:
Reforming the Constitution was one of the main pledges of the AK Party during the 2007 election campaign. The main opposition party CHP was not interested in altering the Constitution on a big scale, making it impossible to form a Constitutional Commission (Anayasa Uzlaşma Komisyonu).[76] The amendments lacked the two-thirds majority needed to instantly become law, but secured 336 votes in the 550 seat parliament – enough to put the proposals to a referendum. The reform package included a number of issues such as the right of individuals to appeal to the highest court, the creation of the ombudsman’s office, the possibility to negotiate a nation-wide labour contract, gender equality, the ability of civilian courts to convict members of the military, the right of civil servants to go on strike, a privacy law, and the structure of the Constitutional Court. The referendum was agreed by a majority of 58%.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Nurettin Sözen |
Mayor of Istanbul 1994–1998 |
Succeeded by Ali Müfit Gürtuna |
| Preceded by Abdullah Gül |
Prime Minister of Turkey 2003–present |
Incumbent |
| Party political offices | ||
| New political party | Leader of the Justice and Development Party 2001–present |
Incumbent |
| Order of precedence | ||
| Preceded by Cemil Çiçek as Speaker of Parliament |
Order of Precedence of Turkey as Prime Minister |
Succeeded by Işık Koşaner as Chief of the General Staff |
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