Erdogan, Recep Tayyip (1954– )

Turkish conservative Islamic politician, prime minister from 2003. A populist mayor of Istanbul 1994–98, he was briefly imprisoned in 1998 because of his Islamist sympathies which were deemed to threaten Turkey's secularism. Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) achieved victories in the 2002 and 2007 parliamentary elections, and during his premiership Turkey's economy grew substantially. But Erdogan achieved little progress on his aim of securing Turkey's entry into the European Union (EU).

Born in Kasimpasa, Istanbul, he was educated at an Islamic school and studied economics at Marmara University. In the 1970s, he worked for a municipal transport company in Istanbul and became a member of the National Salvation Party (NSP), which was disbanded after the military coup of 1980. He then joined the pro-Islamic Welfare Party, which succeeded the NSP in 1983, and was unsuccessful in several attempts to get elected to Turkey's parliament. The Welfare Party, led by Necmettin Erbakan, was banned after the 1997 military coup, and in 2001 Erdogan formed the Justice and Development Party (AKP), as a moderate Islamic, pro-Western and pro-market economy successor party.