Recep Tayyip Erdoan founded a conservative political party in the 2000s.
 Erdoan's foreign policy, described as Neo-Ottoman and imperialist, has led to the Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War, with its focus on preventing the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from gaining ground on the SyriaTurkey border during the Syrian Civil War
On 22 June 2016, President Recep Tayyip Erdoan said that he considered himself successful in "destroying" Turkish civil groups "working against the state", a conclusion that had been confirmed some days earlier by Sedat Lainer, Professor of International Relations and rector of the anakkale Onsekiz Mart University: "Outlawing unarmed and peaceful opposition, sentencing people to unfair punishment under erroneous terror accusations, will feed genuine terrorism in Erdoans Turkey

