Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has dominated politics for over a decade, present himself as the man leading Turkey’s transformation into a modern country with a European standard of living and infrastructure. Last year he inaugurated the Marmaray tunnel, which for the first time connects Istanbul’s two sides — where Europe and Asia meet — with a metro link deep underground beneath the waters of the Bosphorus.
