Recep Tayyip Erdogan (born in Istanbul, 26 February 1954) has been the Prime Minister of Turkey since March 2003. He is also the Chairman and founder of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti). After graduating from Marmara University in 1981, and retiring from his career as a semi-professional footballer in 1982, Erdogan managed to become Mayor of Istanbul, a post which he kept from 1994 until 1998. He founded his AK Parti in 2001 which received widespread public support, eventually gaining a majority of two thirds of seats in parliament in the general election of 2002.