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| This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Turkey |
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The following is a complete list of Presidents of Turkey , consisting of the twelve [heads of state] since the inception of the republican period in 1923, following the Turkish War of Independence.
The President of the Republic of Turkey is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Turkey. Following the 2018 general election, the incumbent office-holder assumed the role of an Executive President and holds both ceremonial and executive status. In this capacity, the President represents the Republic of Turkey, and the unity of the Turkish nation, as well as ensuring the implementation of the Constitution of Turkey and the organized and harmonious functioning of the organs of state. The articles from 101 to 106 of the Constitution establish all the requirements, election, duties, and responsibilities for the office of the President. The office of the President of Turkey was established with the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923. The President of Turkey is often referred to as the Cumhurbaşkanı, meaning 'President of the People'.
The Republic of Turkey was created after the overthrow of Sultan Mehmet VI Vahdettin by the new Republican Parliament in 1922. This new regime delivered the coup de grâce to the Ottoman state which had been practically wiped away from the world stage following the First World War.
The Turkish War of Independence was fought between the Turkish National Movement and the proxies of the Allies – namely Greece on the Western Front, Armenia on the Eastern, France on the Southern, the royalists and the separatists in various cities, and with them, the United Kingdom and Italy in Constantinople – after parts of the Ottoman Empire were occupied and partitioned following the Ottomans' defeat in World War I. Few of the occupying British, French, and Italian troops had been deployed or engaged in combat.
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For a list of rulers of the predecessor Ottoman Empire, see List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire, historically known in Western Europe as the Turkish Empire or simply Turkey, was a state that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror.
