Thursday, Apr. 01, 2010
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Age: 56
Occupation: Prime Minister of Turkey
Previous TIME 100 Appearances: 1
The former mayor of Istanbul, and head of the Justice and Development Party, Erdogan has risen to power along with Turkey's growing Muslim middle class and has challenged the dominance of the country's secular elite. In the past year, he has broken the supremacy of Turkey's army, previously the nation's most powerful institution, and re-oriented the its foreign policy away from its formerly cozy relationship with Israel and moved closer to Iran.