“Before anything else, I'm a Muslim. As a Muslim, I try to comply with the requirements of my religion. I have a responsibility to God, who created me, and I try to fulfill that responsibility. But I try now very much to keep this away from my political life, to keep it private.”

Turkish politician

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a Turkish politician. He has served as president of Turkey since 2014 and was prime minister from 2003 to 2014. He co-founded the Justice and Development Party in 2001 and was mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He emerged from an Islamist political background and is associated with socially conservative policies. Since 2003, he has been Turkey's de facto leader. His long public career is also tied to a period of democratic backsliding and the suppression of dissent in Turkey.