page_title: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
section_title: Foreign policy
hierarchical_section_title: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan / Premiership (2003–2014) / Foreign policy
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Auslandsreisen von Recep Tayyip Erdogan als Ministerpräsident der Türkei. English: Foreign trips by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as Prime Minister of Turkey. Français&#160;: Voyages à l'étranger par Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Premier ministre de Turquie. Nederlands: Buitenlandse reizen door Recep Tayyip Erdoğan als premier van Turkije. Türkçe: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Başbakanı Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tarafından yapılan yurt dışı ziyaretleri. Українська: Закордонні поїздки, що здійснив Реджеп Таїп Ердоган як прем'єр-міністр Туреччини.
context_page_description: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current President of Turkey. He previously served as Prime Minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He founded the Justice and Development Party in 2001, leading it to election victories in 2002, 2007, and 2011 before standing down upon his election as President in 2014. He later returned to the AKP leadership in 2017 following the constitutional referendum that year. Coming from an Islamist political background and as a self-described conservative democrat, he has promoted socially conservative and populist policies during his administration.
  Erdoğan played football for Kasımpaşa before being elected as the Mayor of Istanbul in 1994, as the candidate of the Islamist Welfare Party. He was later stripped of his position, banned from political office, and imprisoned for four months for inciting religious hatred, due to his recitation of a poem by Ziya Gökalp. Erdoğan subsequently abandoned openly Islamist politics, establishing the moderate conservative AKP in 2001, which he went on to lead to a landslide victory in 2002.
context_section_description: Turkish foreign policy during Erdoğan's tenure as prime minister has been associated with the name of Ahmet Davutoğlu. Davutoğlu was the chief foreign policy advisor of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan before he was appointed foreign minister in 2009. The basis of Erdoğan's foreign policy is based on the principle of "don't make enemies, make friends" and the pursuit of "zero problems" with neighboring countries.
  Erdoğan is co-founder of United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (AOC). The initiative seeks to galvanize international action against extremism through the forging of international, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue and cooperation.
caption: Countries visited by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as prime minister
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