Abdullah Gül

Born 29 October 1950, Gül entered parliament in 1991 as a staunch Islamist, riding the wave of the Welfare Party until it was banned for anti-secular activity. When the successor Virtue Party split in 2000, he sided with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's reformist camp, losing a leadership race but co-founding the moderate Justice and Development Party in 2001. The AKP's 2002 landslide made him prime minister for four months while Erdoğan was still barred from office; once that ban lifted in 2003, Gül stepped aside to serve as foreign minister and deputy PM. His 2007 presidential bid triggered mass protests and a Constitutional Court block over his Islamist roots, but a snap election cleared the path. As president through 2014, he signed a string of laws his critics called unconstitutional - tighter internet controls, expanded intelligence powers, judicial changes shielding Erdoğan from corruption probes, and an alcohol restriction that helped ignite the Gezi Park uprising, which he tried to calm from the middle.