Recep Tayyip Erdoan founded a conservative political party for the first time in 2005.
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
On 14 April 2007, an estimated 300,000 people marched in Ankara to protest against the possible candidacy of Erdoan in the 2007 presidential election, afraid that if elected as president, he would alter the secular nature of the Turkish state

