Abdullah Gül

Abdullah Gül , ( born 29 October 1949) is a  Turkish politician who served as the  11th  President of Turkey, in office from 2007 to 2014. He previously served for four months as  Prime Minister from 2002 to 2003, and concurrently served as both  Deputy Prime Minister and as  Foreign Minister between 2003 and 2007. He is currently a member of the Advisory Panel for the President of the  Islamic Development Bank.

Advocating staunch  Islamist political views during his university years, Gül became a  Member of Parliament for  Kayseri in 1991 and was re-elected in 1995,  1999,  2002<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> and  2007<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">. Initially a member of the Islamist  Welfare Party<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">, Gül joined the  Virtue Party<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> in 1998 after the latter was banned for anti-secular activities. When the party split into hardline Islamist and modernist factions in 2000, Gül joined fellow party member  Recep Tayyip Erdoğan<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> in advocating the need for reform and moderation. He ran against serving leader  Recai Kutan<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> for the Virtue Party leadership on behalf of Erdoğan, who was banned from holding political office at the time. As the candidate for the modernist camp, he came second with 521 votes while Kutan won 633. He co-founded the moderate  Justice and Development Party<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> (AKP) with Erdoğan in 2001 after the Virtue Party was shut down in the same year, while hardline conservative members founded the  Felicity Party <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">instead.

<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">Gül became Prime Minister after the AKP won a landslide victory in the  2002 general election<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">, since Erdoğan was still banned from office. His government<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> had removed Erdoğan's political ban by March 2003, after which Erdoğan became an MP for  Siirt<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> in  a by-election<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> and took over as Prime Minister. Gül subsequently served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister until 2007. His subsequent bid for the Presidency drew strong and highly vocal opposition from ardent supporters of secularism in Turkey<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> and was initially blocked by the Constitutional Court<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> due to concerns over his Islamist political background. <span class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:0.53em;line-height:0;position:relative;top:-0.5em;font-family:Lora,serif;">[3] <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> He was eventually  elected<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> Turkey's first Islamist President after the  2007 snap general election<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">.

<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">As President, Gül came under criticism for giving assent to controversial laws which have been regarded by the political opposition as  unconstitutional<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">. <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> In June 2013, he signed a bill restricting alcohol consumption into law despite initially indicating a possible veto, which was seen as a contributing factor to sparking the  2013–14 anti-government protests<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">. <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> Other controversies included a law tightening internet regulation in 2013, <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> a law increasing political control over the judiciary in 2014 <span class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:0.53em;line-height:0;position:relative;top:-0.5em;font-family:Lora,serif;">[ <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> and a law giving the  National Intelligence Organisation<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> (MİT) controversial new powers also in 2014. <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> Gül took a mediating approach during anti-government protests and  government corruption scandals<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">.