ANKARA
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is addressing Sunday a crowd of over ten thousand in a congress of his Justice and Development (AK) Party at an Ankara sports hall packed with party delegates, senior officials as well as foreign guests.
Erdogan priases Turkey's economic success, its rising international profile and the consolidation of civilian rule in the country.
Almost into its tenth year in power, the congress is expected to elect new officials to party's administration.
Erdogan's foreign guests attending the congress included Erdogan's foreign guests include Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambayev, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, Sudan's Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, Iraqi Vice President Tariq Hashimi, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashal, and former Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath.
AK Party was founded in 2001 and it won a landslide victory in elections in November 2002, winning over two-thirds of parliamentary seats.
In early general elections in July 2007, the AK Party increased its support to 47 percent and in the general elections on June 12, 2011, the party boosted its popular vote to 49.8 percent, claiming 327 parliamentary seats to form a third-consecutive majority government.
