APresident · 2014 –Independent states
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Türkiye's twelfth president (b. 1954), the first elected by popular vote, in office since 2014.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was mayor of Istanbul in 1994–1998, co-founded the Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) in 2001 and was prime minister in 2003–2014.
In 2014 he became the first president elected by popular vote. The 2017 referendum introduced an executive presidential system, and he was re-elected in 2018 and 2023.
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Updated: October 4, 2026