Recep back in as party leader

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been returned as leader of Turkey’s ruling party.

The Justice and Development Party, or AK Party, re-elected Mr Erdogan, its co-founder, at a congress where he was the only candidate for chairman.

A narrow victory in a referendum last month to expand the powers of the Turkish presidency allows him to be both the head of state and of a political party.

Speaking to tens of thousands of people in Ankara, Mr Erdogan said he was back after “998 days of separation” from the party and outlined a vision for its immediate future and elections

“This congress is the AK Party’s rebirth”

scheduled for November 2019 with new executive and grassroots teams.

“This congress is the AK Party’s rebirth,” he said before the vote. “AK Party is not just its voters’ party, it’s the party for all of our 80million citizens.”

Elected with 1,414 votes, Mr Erdogan set the party’s course for what he called a “new era” of reforms.

“The upcoming months will be a period of soaring in all areas, including combating terror, the economy, expanding rights and freedoms and investments,” the president said.

Mr Erdogan was forced to cut his formal ties to the party when he became the country’s first directly elected president in 2014.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan