Ali Müfit Gürtuna was the mayor of Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

 from November 11, 1998 to April 1, 2004.

Political career

He started his political career at ANAP

ANAP

ANAP may refer to:*National Association of Small Farmers in Cuba*The Motherland Party of Turkey *Alliance Party for the Sake of Azerbaijan , a political party in Azerbaijan*Afghan National Auxiliary Police...

 in the beginning of the 1980s. He changed his side in 1994 by joining to the Welfare Party

Welfare Party

The Welfare Party was an Islamist political party in Turkey. It was founded by Ali Türkmen, Ahmet Tekdal and Necmettin Erbakan in Ankara in 1983 as heir to two earlier parties, Milli Nizam Partisi and Milli Selamet Partisi , which were banned from politics...

. His rise to success took place after this decision. He was appointed as the mayor of Istanbul in late 1998 and he was elected by popular vote on April 18, 1999.

When his term in the office ended, he gave up politics for two years until he returned to public eye by starting the Turkuaz Hareketi (Turquoise Movement) in 2006. He claimed that he formed an alliance from prominent politicians of Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 from different political orientations to win the 2007 elections

Turkish general election, 2007

Turkey's 16th general election was held on July 22, 2007 and resulted in a resounding victory for the incumbent Justice and Development Party...

 but it turned out that the politicians Gürtuna showed as his allies were not interested in Turkuaz Hareketi at all.