Born on February 26, 1954 in Istanbul.
Education
After finishing the religious school for imam-hatibs in 1973, entered the Marmara University (Istanbul), Department of Economics and Management.
Edexperoince
Upon graduating worked as adviser and manager in the private sector.
He entered politics in the mid-1970s as a member of the Islamist National Salvation Party (MSP) led by Necmeddin Erbakan, the ideologist of Turkish political Islam. He headed up the party's regional youth organization.
1984: he became the leader of a regional and in 1985 of the Istanbul organization of the Felicity Party (SP), a successor to the MSP. He was later elected to the party's central committee.
In the 1994 municipal elections he was elected Mayor of Istanbul on the SP ticket. As the mayor, in 1998 he was convicted of "inciting religious hostility and hatred"(for reading his verses at a rally). He spent 4 months in custody.
He headed up "the reforming wing" of political Islam which formed the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in August 2001.
2002: Because of restrictions with regard to persons convicted on political grounds he was debarred from the parliamentary elections in November 2002 in which his party scored a victory and went on to form a one-party government.
March 2003: Following a change of the Turkish laws he was elected to parliament in the by-elections in the Siirt Province, whereupon he became the head of the new Cabinet.
July 22, 2007: As a result of another AKP victory in an early parliamentary election, he again became the head of a one-party government which won a confidence vote in parliament on September 5, 2007.
Personal
He speaks English and Arabic.
Married, with four children.