The premiership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began on March 14, 2003, when the first Cabinet headed by Erdoğan was sworn in by the Turkish Parliament.
Elections
2002 general elections
The AKP won a sweeping victory in the 2002 elections, which saw every party previously represented in the Grand National Assembly ejected from the chamber. In the process, it won a two-thirds majority of seats, becoming the first Turkish party in 11 years to win an outright majority. Erdoğan, as the leader of the biggest party in parliament, would have been normally given the task to form a cabinet. However, according to the Turkish Constitution Article 109 the Prime Ministers had to be also a representative of the Turkish Parliament. Erdoğan, who was banned from holding any political office after a 1994 incident in which he read a poem deemed pro-Islamist by judges, was therefore not. As a result, Gül became prime minister. It survived the crisis over the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite a massive back bench rebellion where over a hundred AKP MPs joined those of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) in parliament to prevent the government from allowing the United States to launch a Northern offensive in Iraq from Turkish territory. Later, Erdoğan's ban was abolished with the help of the CHP and Erdoğan became prime minister by being selected to parliament after a by-election in Siirt.
The AKP has undertaken structural reforms, and during its rule Turkey has seen rapid growth and an end to its three decade long period of high inflation rates. Inflation had fallen to 8.8% by 2004.
2007 elections
On April 14, 2007, an estimated 300,000 people marched in Ankara to protest the possible candidacy of Erdoğan in the 2007 presidential election, afraid that if elected as president, he would alter the secular nature of the Turkish state."Secular rally targets Turkish PM," BBC News, April 14, 2007. Erdoğan announced on April 24, 2007, that the party had decided to nominate Abdullah Gül as the AKP candidate in the presidential election."Turkey's ruling party announces FM Gul as presidential candidate," Xinhua, April 24, 2007.
Early parliamentary elections were called after the failure of the parties in parliament to agree on the next Turkish president. The opposition parties boycotted the parliamentary vote and deadlocked the election process. At the same time, Erdoğan claimed the failure to elect a president was a failure of the Turkish political system and proposed to modify the constitution.
The AKP achieved victory in the rescheduled July 22, 2007 elections with 46.6% of the vote, translating into control of 341 of the 550 available parliamentary seats. Although the AKP received significantly more votes in 2007 than in 2002, the number of parliamentary seats they controlled decreased due to the rules of the Turkish electoral system. However, they retained a comfortable ruling majority. "No Stopping, Push On!" was the slogan of the Justice and Development Party in the general elections of 2007.
Territorially, the elections of 2007 saw a major advance for the AKP, with the party outpolling the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party in traditional Kurdish strongholds such as Van and Mardin, as well as outpolling the secular-left CHP in traditionally secular areas such as Antalya and Artvin. Overall, the AKP secured a plurality of votes in 68 of Turkey's 81 provinces, with its strongest vote of 71% coming from Bingöl. Its weakest vote, a mere 12%, came from Tunceli, the only Turkish province where the Alevi form a majority. Abdullah Gül was elected president in late August with 339 votes in the third round – the first at which a simple majority is required – after deadlock in the first two rounds, in which a two-thirds majority is needed.
2011 elections
The 2011 elections was the last election Erdogan attended as a prime minister. The result of the elections was a third consecutive victory for the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AKP), with its leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan being re-elected as Prime Minister for a third term with 49.8% of the vote and 327 MPs. This represented an increase of 3.2% since the 2007 Turkish general election and an 11.4% rise since the 2009 Turkish local elections. The victory was attributed to the strong sustained economic recovery after the Great Recession as well as the completion of several projects such as the İzmir commuter railway, inter-city high speed rail lines and airports in Amasya, Gökçeada and Gazipaşa (Antalya).
Electoral fraud
Erdoğan's government developed the SEÇSİS secure vote counting system ostensibly in order to reduce fraud. However, it has been criticised for being prone to manipulation. Particular controversy was generated by the fact that the system was developed in the United States.
The first significant cases of election fraud under Erdoğan's rule were documented during the 2009 local elections, where numerous cases of ballot paper theft were reported in Ankara and Adana.
In the 2011 general election, a minivan containing ballot papers with a pre-stamped vote for the AKP was impounded by police in İzmir. An independent candidate from Yalova also accused officials at polling stations of intimidating voters to vote for the AKP.
Substantial levels of fraud were documented during the 2014 local elections, including the theft and burning of ballots cast both for and against the AKP and the intimidation of officials counting the votes, including European Union Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, by government forces. Several cases of opposition votes being counted as invalid and vote totals per ballot box being recorded incorrectly also caused controversy. With an unusually high number of power outages occurring throughout the country while votes were being counted, the government was ridiculed when Energy Minister Taner Yıldız blamed them on cats entering transformers. Erdoğan was criticised for disregarding the high number of fraud cases and declaring victory none-the-less. Significant cases of misconduct were documented in Yalova, Ankara, Antalya and Ağrı. The Supreme Electoral Council ordered a repeat of the election in Yalova and Ağrı, both of which the AKP had initially narrowly lost to the CHP and BDP respectively.
Despite strong surveillance by citizens during the 2014 presidential election, no serious cases of fraud were documented during the voting or counting process. However, Erdoğan was still heavily scrutinised over what was perceived to be excessive media bias in his favour during the campaigning process.
On 14 June 2018, in a video that was leaked to the public, President Erdogan is caught calling his party members to resort to electoral fraud, by "marking" the votes of an opposition party, HDP, in a bid to consolidate a better position for his own party at the 2018 June elections in Turkey.
Cabinets First cabinet The first cabinet of Erdogan took office on 14 March 2003. He succeeded to the government Gul, who was in office since 18 November 2002.
Functions Holder Start End English title Turkish title Prime Minister Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gül 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Deputy Prime Minister Abdüllatif Şener 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Minister of State Ali Babacan 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Minister of State Nimet Çubukçu 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Minister of State Mehmet Aydın 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Minister of State Kürşad Tüzmen 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Minister of State Beşir Atalay 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Ministry of Justice Cemil Çiçek 14 March 2003 8 May 2007 Ministry of National Defense Mehmet Vecdi Gönül 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Ministry of the Interior Abdülkadir Aksu 14 March 2003 8 May 2007 Ministry of Finance Kemal Unakıtan 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Ministry of National Education Hüseyin Çelik 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Ministry of Public Works and Settlement Faruk Nafız Özak 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Ministry of Health Recep Akdağ 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Ministry of Transport and Communication Binali Yıldırım 14 March 2003 8 May 2007 Ministry of Agriculture Mehmet Mehdi Eker 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Ministry of Labour and Social Security Murat Başesgioğlu 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Ministry of Industry and Commerce Ali Coşkun 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources Mehmet Hilmi Güler 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Ministry of Culture and Tourism Atilla Koç 14 March 2003 28 August 2007 Ministry of Environment and Forestry Osman Pepe 14 March 2003 28 August 2007
Second cabinet The second cabinet of Erdogan was active between 29 August 2007 and 14 June 2011.
Functions Holder Start End English title Turkish title Prime Minister Deputy Prime Minister Minister of State Responsible for Inter-ministerial Coordination, Human Rights and Cyprus Cemil Çiçek 29 August 2007 14 June 2011 Deputy Prime Minister Minister of State Responsible for Foundations and TRT Hayati Yazıcı 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Bülent Arınç 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Deputy Prime Minister Minister of State Responsible for the Economy, Banking and Treasury Nazım Ekren 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Ali Babacan 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Minister of State Responsible for Information Technology and the Alliance of Civilizations Mehmet Aydın 29 August 2007 14 June 2011 Minister of State Responsible of Foreign Trade Kürşad Tüzmen 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Mehmet Zafer Çağlayan 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Minister of State Responsible for Women and Family Nimet Çubukçu 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Selma Aliye Kavaf 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Minister of State Responsible of the Southeastern Anatolia Project Cevdet Yılmaz 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Minister of State Responsible for Religious Affairs and the Turkish World Mustafa Sait Yazıcıoğlu 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Faruk Çelik 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Minister of State Responsible for Youth and Sports Murat Başesgioğlu 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Faruk Nafız Özak 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Minister of State Chief Negotiator with the European Union Egemen Bağış 8 January 2009 14 June 2011 Minister of State Responsible for Customs, Istanbul 2010 and Social Protection Hayati Yazıcı 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ali Babacan 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Ahmet Davutoğlu 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Ministry of the Interior Beşir Atalay 29 August 2007 8 March 2011 Ministry of Finance Kemal Unakıtan 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Mehmet Şimşek 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Ministry of Justice Mehmet Ali Şahin 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Sadullah Ergin 1 May 2009 8 March 2011 Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources Hilmi Güler 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Taner Yıldız 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Ministry of Agriculture Mehmet Mehdi Eker 29 August 2007 14 June 2011 Ministry of Culture and Tourism Ertuğrul Günay 29 August 2007 14 June 2011 Ministry of Health Recep Akdağ 29 August 2007 14 June 2011 Ministry of National Education Hüseyin Çelik 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Nimet Çubukçu 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Ministry of National Defense Vecdi Gönül 29 August 2007 14 June 2011 Ministry of Industry and Commerce 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Nihat Ergün 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Ministry of Labour and Social Security Faruk Çelik 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Ömer Dinçer 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Ministry of Transport and Communication Binali Yıldırım 29 August 2007 8 March 2011 Ministry of Public Works and Settlement Faruk Nafız Özak 29 August 2007 1 May 2009 Mustafa Demir 1 May 2009 14 June 2011 Ministry of Environment and Forestry Veysel Eroğlu 29 August 2007 14 June 2011
Third cabinet
The third cabinet of Erdogan was active between 2011 and 2014.