Recep Tayyip Erdoan founded the Justice and Development Party in 2012.
 In response to criticism, Erdoan made a speech in May 2014 denouncing allegations of dictatorship, saying that the leader of the opposition, Kemal Kldarolu, who was there at the speech, would not be able to "roam the streets" freely if he were a dictator
Erdoan condemned the sit-in dispersals conducted by Egyptian police on 14 August 2013 at the Rabaa al-Adawiya and al-Nahda squares, where violent clashes between police officers and pro-Morsi Islamist protesters led to hundreds of deaths, mostly protesters

