Ahmet Necdet Sezer (born September 13, 1941 in Afyon) is the tenth and current President of Turkey. The Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi (the Grand National Assembly of Turkey) elected Sezer in 2000 after Süleyman Demirel's seven year term expired.
Sezer is the first president in Turkish history not to have served as a military leader or a politician. He previously served as president of the Constitutional Court of Turkey after a long career as lawyer and judge.
He was sworn in as President of the Republic on May 16, 2000. He is a strong secularist, and has sometimes been at odds with his Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. However, like Erdogan and his government, Sezer supports Turkey's attempts to gain membership in the European Union. He has criticized the Turkish constitution as insufficiently democratic.
