Ahmet Davutoğlu is a Turkish academic, politician and former diplomat who served as the 26th Prime Minister of Turkey and Leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) from 2014 to 2016. He previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2014 and chief advisor to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from 2003 to 2009. He was elected as an AKP Member of Parliament for Konya in the 2011 general election and was reelected as an MP in both the June and November 2015 general elections. He resigned as prime minister on 22 May 2016.
Davutoğlu in 2013
Davutoğlu at the 50th Munich Security Conference in 2014
Davutoğlu (third left) at the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation Conference in 2011
Davutoğlu (C) at the Chatham House International Roundtable, Istanbul, September 2012 with Suzan Sabancı Dinçer (L) and Dr Robin Niblett (R)
Justice and Development Party (Turkey)
The Justice and Development Party, abbreviated officially as AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democratic. It has been the ruling party of Turkey since 2003. Third-party sources often refer to the party as national conservative, social conservative, right-wing populist and as espousing neo-Ottomanism. The party is generally regarded as being right-wing on the political spectrum, although some sources have described it as far-right since 2011. It is one of the two major parties of contemporary Turkey along with the Republican People's Party (CHP).
The Republic Protests took place in 2007 in support of the Kemalist reforms, particularly state secularism and democracy, against the perceived Islamization of Turkey under the ruling Justice and Development Party.
A rally of the Justice and Development Party in 2007
Picture of Erdoğan among other leaders at the European People's Party Congress in 2009
Image: Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ukraine
