Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkish pronunciation: [re'dZep taj'jip 'aerdo(W)an] ( listen); born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the current President of Turkey, holding the position since 2014. He previously served as Prime Minister from 2003 to 2014 and as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001, leading it to general election victories in 2002, 2007 and 2011 before standing down upon his election as President in 2014.
Personal life and education
Erdogan was born in 1954 in the Kasimpasa neighborhood of Istanbul, to which his family had moved from Rize Province. His parents are Ahmet Erdogan and Tenzile Erdogan. Erdogan reportedly said in 2003, "I'm a Georgian, my family is a Georgian family which migrated from Batumi to Rize." But in a 2014 televised interview on the NTV news network, he said, "You wouldn't believe the things they have said about me. They have said I am Georgian... forgive me for saying this... even much uglier things, they have even called me an Armenian, but I am Turkish." In an account based on registry records, his genealogy was tracked to an ethnic Turkish family.  Erdogan spent his early childhood in Rize, where his father Ahmet Erdogan (1905 - 1988) was a Captain in the Turkish Coast Guard. Erdogan had a brother Mustafa (b. 1958) and sister Vesile (b. 1965). His summer holidays were mostly spent in Guneysu, Rize, where his family originates from. Throughout his life he often returned to this spiritual home, and in 2015 he opened a vast mosque on a mountaintop near this village. The family returned to Istanbul when Erdogan was 13 years old.  As a teenager, he sold lemonade and sesame buns (simit) on the streets of the city's rougher districts to earn extra money. Brought up in an observant Muslim family, Erdogan graduated from Kasimpasa Piyale primary school in 1965, and Imam Hatip school, a religious vocational high school, in 1973. He received his high school diploma from Eyup High School. He subsequently studied Business Administration at the Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences, now known as Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences--although several Turkish sources dispute that he graduated.  In his youth, Erdogan played semi-professional football at a local club. Fenerbahce wanted him to transfer to the club but his father prevented it. The stadium of the local football club in the district where he grew up, Kasimpasa S.K. is named after him.  Erdogan married Emine Gulbaran (born 1955, Siirt) on 4 July 1978. They have two sons; Ahmet Burak and Necmettin Bilal, and two daughters, Esra and Sumeyye. His father, Ahmet Erdogan, died in 1988 and his 88-year-old mother, Tenzile Erdogan, died in 2011. He is a member of the Community of Iskenderpasa, a Turkish sufistic community of Naqshbandi tariqah.
Where was Erdogan born?
Erdogan was born in 1954 in the Kasimpasa neighborhood of Istanbul,
Erdogan was born in 1954 in the Kasimpasa neighborhood of Istanbul,