Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Prime Minister of Turkey
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 March 2003
President Abdullah Gül

Deputy Ali Babacan
Bülent Arınç

Preceded by Abdullah Gül

Mayor of Istanbul
In office27 March 1994 – 6 November 1998

Preceded by Nurettin Sözen

Succeeded by Ali Müfit Gürtuna

Born 26 February 1954 (age 55) Kasımpaşa, Istanbul, Turkey

Political party Justice and Development Party

Spouse(s) Emine Erdoğan Alma mater Marmara University

Religion Islam

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b. February 26, 1954 in Istanbul, Turkey)[1] is a Turkish politician, a former mayor of Istanbul and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey since 14 March 2003. He is also the chairman of the Justice and Development Party (AK Parti), which holds a majority of the seats in the Turkish Parliament

Personal life and education

Born to a Georgian family that moved from Batumi to Rize, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan grew up, in the Kasımpaşa district of Istanbul, a less than affluent neighborhood, famous for its macho honor code.[2] Kasımpaşa men are known to be quick to anger, painfully proud and blunt in word, and he has always been proud of being one.[2]
Erdoğan’s grandfather “Bagatlı Recep”, Recep from Bagat, died in 1916 fighting against the invading Russian and Armenian forces. [3]
Erdoğan spent his early childhood in Rize, where his father was a member of the Turkish Coast Guard.[4][4] The family returned to Istanbul when Erdoğan was 13 years old.[4] As a teenager, he sold lemonade and sesame buns on the streets of Istanbul’s rougher districts to earn extra money.[4] Brought up in a observant Muslim family, he graduated from a religious high school (İmam Hatip school) and then 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).[5]
In his youth, Erdoğan played semi-professional football in a local club.[5][6][7] The stadium of the local football club of the district he grew up in, Kasımpaşa S.K., a team which is currently playing in the Turkish Süper Lig, is named after him.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan married Emine Erdoğan (née Gülbaran) (b. 1955 in Siirt), whom he met during a conference, on 4 July 1978.[1] The couple has two sons (Ahmet Burak, Necmeddin Bilâl) and two daughters (Esra, Sümeyye).[1] Erdoğan gave a speech in New York on 19 December 2006 in which he talked mainly about the good relations between citizens of Turkey who come from different backgrounds by giving an example from his own life. Erdoğan said that he doesn’t have any problems with his wife, Emine Erdoğan, who is of Arab ancestry and originally from a different Muslim denomination (Shāfi‘ī/Ash’ari).[1].