Türkiye's AK Party celebrates 21st founding anniversary

ANKARA

Türkiye's Justice and Development (AK) Party is celebrating 21 years of its founding -- a period marked by resounding election wins.

Founded on Aug. 14, 2001, the party burst onto the political scene under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who became prime minister in 2003 and has served as president since 2014.

The party swept to power in the Nov. 3, 2002, elections, capturing two-thirds of the seats in parliament -- the first party in more than a decade to win an outright majority.

It participated in six general elections in 2002, 2007, 2011, and 2015, and snap elections in November 2015 and June 2018 -- winning all.

Türkiye approved a package of constitutional reforms in 2010 under the government of then-Prime Minister Erdogan in a referendum on the 30th anniversary of a coup that brought the military to power.

In 2017, Türkiye held a referendum where the majority of voters decided in favor of an 18-article bill to switch from a parliamentary to a presidential system. And in June 2018, Erdogan was re-elected president -- Türkiye’s first president under the new system.

Türkiye's next elections are set for 2023.

The elections next year are "critical," Erdogan said in a letter to party founders and members for the 21st anniversary.

"We are determined to bring the AK Party, which has won the ballot box 15 times since its establishment, to victory again in the president and parliamentary elections to be held in 2023," he said.