Justice and Development Party (Turkey) in the context of "Republican People's Party"

In Turkey, secularism or laicism (see laïcité) was first introduced with the 1928 amendment of the Constitution of 1924, which removed the provision declaring that the "Religion of the State is Islam", and with the later reforms of Turkey's first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which set the administrative and political requirements to create a modern, democratic, secular state, aligned with Kemalism.

Nine years after its introduction, laïcité was explicitly stated in the second article of the then Turkish constitution on 5 February 1937. The current Constitution of 1982 neither recognizes an official religion nor promotes any.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who has been the president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which he co-founded in 2001. He also served as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. Coming from an Islamist background and promoting socially conservative policies, Turkey has experienced increasing authoritarianism, democratic backsliding and suppression of dissent under Erdoğan's rule.

Erdoğan was born in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, and studied at the Aksaray Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences, before working as a consultant and senior manager in the private sector. Becoming active in local politics, he was elected Welfare Party's Beyoğlu district chair in 1984 and Istanbul chair in 1985. Following the 1994 local elections, Erdoğan was elected mayor of Istanbul. In 1998 he was convicted for inciting religious hatred and banned from politics after reciting a poem by Ziya Gökalp that compared mosques to barracks and the faithful to an army. Erdoğan was released from prison in 1999 and formed the AKP, abandoning openly Islamist policies.

Ağlasun is a town in Burdur Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. It is the seat of Ağlasun District. Its population is 3,645 (2021). The mayor is Ali Ulusoy (AKP).

The town is 7 km from the ruins of the ancient city of Sagalassos, from which it gets its modern name.

Patnos (Armenian: Բադնոց, Latin transliteration: Badnoc‘ or Patnoc‘, Kurdish: Panos) is a city of Ağrı Province of Turkey on a plain surrounded by high mountains including Süphan, watered by tributaries of the Murat River. It is 82 km south of the city of Ağrı on the road to Van. It is the seat of Patnos District. Its population is 61,837 (2021). The mayor is Abdulhalik Taşkın (Ak Parti) in 2024.

The plain has been settled since at least 1300BC and this was a centre of the Urartu civilisation. The city has many historical ruins from Urartian period.

Kocasinan is a municipality and district of Kayseri Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,471 km, and its population is 409,005 (2022). It covers the northern part of the agglomeration of Kayseri and the adjacent countryside.

The name comes from Mimar Sinan, the Great, Ottoman architect. The mayor is Ahmet Çolakbayrakdar (AKP). The district Kocasinan was created in 1998 from part of the former central district of Kayseri, along with the district Melikgazi. At the 2013 Turkish local government reorganisation, the rural part of the district was integrated into the municipality, the villages becoming neighbourhoods.

Hacılar is a municipality and district of Kayseri Province, Turkey. Its area is 187 km, and its population is 12,465 (2022). The mayor is Bilal Özdoğan (AKP).

İncesu is a municipality and district of Kayseri Province, Turkey. Its area is 874 km, and its population is 29,120 (2022). The mayor is Mustafa İlmek (AKP). It has been identified with the ancient town Sadogora or Sadacora.

A constitutional referendum on electoral reform was held in Turkey on 21 October 2007. After the aborted attempt to elect the next president in May 2007, the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan introduced substantial electoral reforms in parliament which were then passed with the votes of Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party and the opposition Motherland Party.