Recep Tayyip

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was born in Istanbul in 1954. In 1981, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in management from the Marmara University, İstanbul.

Between 1969-1980, he played professional soccer, a sport that taught him the great importance of teamwork starting at age 15. Mr. Erdoğan entered politics at a very young age. During high school in the early 1970’s, he was elected Chairman of the National Salvation Party İstanbul Youth Organization.

In 1985, Mr. Erdoğan was elected Chairman of the Istanbul Branch of the Welfare Party. During his tenure, he developed a new organizational structure for the İstanbul Branch, which became a model for other political parties. One of the most important initiatives of Mr. Erdoğan while serving in Istanbul Branch was strengthening the female participation in politics. His wife Mrs. Emine Erdoğan led the movement of organizing women. This successful structure was credited with placing the Welfare Party in the first place in the subsequent elections.

Erdoğan showed his political abilities through the years when he was mayor of Istanbul. Mr. Erdoğan was elected Mayor of Metropolitan Istanbul in 1994. His successful administration of human resources and finance helped him solve many of the city’s chronic problems. The drought problem was solved by installing hundreds of kilometres of new pipeline; new recycling facilities which were among the most advanced facilities of their type were constructed to fight the city’s garbage problem, over 50 bridges, bypass roads, highways were built to solve İstanbul’s chronic traffic problem, 100.000 scholarships were given to promising youth. On his first day at work, he took over a debt of 2 billion dollars. Under his leadership the city paid back most of this debt and succeeded in investing 4 billion dollars as a result of his fight against corruption. His management techniques became a model for other municipalities. His fight against corruption won a great deal of admiration.

Mr. Erdoğan’s tenure was ended by a court decree four and a half years after he was elected. He was imprisoned for four months following the conviction for having read a poem, which was considered provocative, in an election rally in the province of Siirt.

In August 2001, Mr. Erdoğan founded and was subsequently elected Chairman of the Justice and Development Party (AK Parti). Erdoğan is considered to be among Turkey's most charismatic politicians, proven by the landslide victory of AK Party in the general elections of late 2002 winning a majority representation by 66% in the Turkish Parliament. However,he was unable to become the Prime Minister because he was banned from standing in electionsor holding political office due to his prior conviction for having recited a poem.

But a change in the law cleared the way for him to run for the Parliament. He was elected on March 9, 2003 by 85% of the popular votes in the very same province, Siirt where he had recited the famous poem and within days of his victory he was named as Prime Minister (14 March 2003).

Under Erdoğan’s leadership, Turkey has adopted four different reform packages that are in accordance with his promise to make Turkey more democratic and pluralist country as well as advance the aspirations for European Union membership. Within his first year of leadership, the inflation rate declined from 40% to 14%, interest rate of government borrowing rate declined from 68% to 24%, Per Capital Income increased from $2800 to $3300, 38 dams were activated. He has traveled to 34 countries and increased Turkey’s trade volume and political strength not only regionally but also internationally.

Mr. Erdoğan is married and has 4 children.