Sayin Abdullah Gül, President of Turkey
Sayin Abdullah Gül, GCB, Ph.D (born October 29, 1950) is the 11th President of the Republic of Turkey, serving in that office since 28 August 2007. He previously served for five months as Prime Minister (2002-2003), and as Foreign Minister from 2003 to 2007.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's selection of Gül as a presidential candidate drew strong and highly vocal opposition from ardent supporters of secularism in Turkey. In May 2007, Gül's first bid for presidency was blocked by the Constitutional Court, in a climate of secularist concern regarding views Gül had expressed during his Welfare Party years, and the fact that his wife, Hayrünnisa Gül, wears a headscarf, seen by some as a symbol of political Islam. However, following the parliamentary elections in July the same year, which were won by the AKP with 46.6% of the popular vote, he was eventually elected President on August 28, 2007 and was sworn in the same day, becoming the first former-Islamist President in the modern history of Turkey, which has been described as a "new era in Turkish politics". In September 2008 he became the first Turkish leader to visit neighbouring Armenia, sparking a major debate in Turkey.
Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Former President of Turkey
Ahmet Necdet Sezer was born on 13 September 1941 in Afyon. He graduated from Afyon High School in 1958.
He graduated from the Ankara University Faculty of Law in 1962 and began his career as a judge in Ankara. Following his military service at the Military Academy, he served first as a judge in Dicle and Yerköy, and later as a supervisory judge in the High Court of Appeals in Ankara. In 1978 he received LL.M. in civil law in Ankara University Faculty of Law.
On 7 March 1983, he was elected as a member to the High Court of Appeals. As he was a member in the Second Chamber of Law, Sezer was recommended to the president by the plenary assembly of the High Court of Appeals among the three candidates for appointment as member of the Constitutional Court. On 27 September 1988, he was appointed by the president as member of the Constitutional Court. On 6 January 1998, he was elected chief justice of the Constitutional Court.
Ahmet Necdet Sezer was elected as the tenth president by the Turkish Grand National Assembly on 5 May 2000 and assumed his duties on 16 May 2000.
President Sezer married Semra in 1964 and has three children.
