Leaders of the world

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Heydar Aliyev

Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev was the third President of Azerbaijan for the New Azerbaijan Party from October 1993 to October 2003, when his son Ilham Aliyev succeeded him. From 1969 to 1982, Aliyev was also the leader of Soviet Azerbaijan, effectively dominating the political life of Azerbaijan for many years.

Many of the details of Aliyev's early life are obscure. According to his hagiographical website, he was born in Nakhchivan City. After graduating from Nakhchivan Pedagogical School, from 1939 to 1941 Aliyev attended the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute (now the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy), where he studied architecture. In 1949 and 1950, he studied at the USSR MGB Officer Corps Qualifications-Raising School. Aliyev's official biography also claims that he studied at Baku State University, graduating with a degree in history in 1957. However, it seems that he actually attended the Ministry of State Security Academy in Leningrad.

Aliyev joined the Azerbaijan SSR People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB) in 1944. In 1954, as part of a government reform, NKGB became known as Committee for State Security, or the KGB. Aliyev rose quickly within the agency to the rank of Major-General, became a deputy chairman of Azerbaijani KGB in 1964, and its chairman in 1967.

In 1969, Aliyev was appointed by Leonid Brezhnev to the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of Azerbaijan Communist Party amidst a Soviet anti-corruption campaign, Aliyev made some progress in the fight against corruption: a number of people were sentenced to prison terms; and in 1975, five factory and collective farm managers were sentenced to death for gross corruption. In the early 1980s, Aliyev barred the offspring of certain legal personnel from attending the Republic's law school, in a purported effort to curb a self-perpetuating elite based on corruption. In 1977, even in Brezhnev's time, he visited Iran: Mashhad twice and Kerbala once.

On 22 November 1982, Yuri Andropov promoted Aliyev from candidate to full member of Soviet Politburo and appointed him to the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, responsible for transportation and social services. Aliyev thus attained the highest position ever reached by an Azerbaijani in the Soviet Union. Aliyev was forced to resign from this position in 1987 amidst allegations of corruption made against him by Mikhail Gorbachev.

By December 1991, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist and Azerbaijan formally became an independent state, despite Mutallibov's presidency Aliyev independently governed Nakhchivan. Early 1992 was marked by increased violence in Nagorno-Karabakh War with the fall of Shusha, the last Azerbaijani-populated town in Nagorno-Karabakh. These events resulted in the resignation of Mutallibov and the subsequent rise to power of the Azerbaijan Popular Front led by Abulfaz Elchibey. During Elchibey's one year in power, Aliyev continued to govern Nakhchivan without any subordination to the official government in Baku. The attempt by the Popular Front's Minister of Interior Isgandar Hamidov to forcibly overthrow Aliyev in Nakhchivan was thwarted by local militia at the regional airport. During the same period, Aliyev independently negotiated a cease-fire agreement in Nakhchivan with the then-President of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrossian.

On 9 June 1993, after the military coup in Ganja led by Colonel Suret Huseynov, Abulfaz Elchibey was forced to invite Heydar Aliyev to Baku to mediate the crisis. On 24 June 1993, amidst the advancement of insurgent forces under Huseynov's control towards Baku, Elchibey fled from the city to his native village of Keleki in Nakhchivan. Earlier, on 15 June 1993, Aliyev had been elected Chairman of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan, and after Elchibey's flight he also assumed temporary presidential powers. In August 1993, Elchibey was stripped of his presidency by the nationwide referendum, and in October 1993, Aliyev was elected President of Azerbaijan. Aliyev's health began to fail in 1999, when he had a major heart bypass operation in the United States at the Cleveland Clinic. He later had prostate surgery and a hernia operation. He suffered a collapse while giving a speech on live television in April 2003. On 6 August Aliyev returned to the United States for treatment of congestive heart failure and kidney problems. He stood down from the presidency at the start of October 2003, but in an extremely controversial move appointed his son Ilham as his party's sole presidential candidate. On 12 December 2003, President Heydar Aliyev died at the Cleveland Clinic He was buried at the Fakhri Khiyaban (The Alley of Honor) cemetery in Baku.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

Mustafa Kemal Atatьrk was a Turkish army officer, reformist statesman, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey. His surname, Atatьrk (meaning "Father of the Turks"), was granted to him in 1934 and forbidden to any other person by the Turkish parliament.Ataturk was a military officer during World War I.Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, he led the Turkish National Movement in the Turkish War of Independence. Having established a provisional government in Ankara, he defeated the forces sent by the Allies. His military campaigns led to victory in the Turkish War of Independence. Ataturk then embarked upon a program of political, economic, and cultural reforms, seeking to transform the former Ottoman Empire into a modern and secular nation-state. Under his leadership, thousands of new schools were built, primary education was made free and compulsory, and women were given equal civil and political rights, while the burden of taxation on peasants was reduced. His government also carried out an extensive policy of Turkification. The principles of Ataturk's reforms, upon which modern Turkey was established, are referred to as Kemalism.

The Conference of Lausanne began on 21 November 1922. Turkey, represented by Эsmet Эnцnь of the GNA, refused any proposal that would compromise Turkish sovereignty, such as the control of Turkish finances, the Capitulations, the Straits and other issues. On 24 July 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed by the Powers with the GNA, thus recognising the latter as the government of Turkey.

On 29 October 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed. Since then Republic Day has been celebrated as a national holiday on this date.

With the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, efforts to modernise the country started. The new government analyzed the institutions and constitutions of Western states such as France, Sweden, Italy, and Switzerland and adapted them to the needs and characteristics of the Turkish nation. Highlighting the public's lack of knowledge regarding Kemal's intentions, the public cheered: "We are returning to the days of the first caliphs."[59] Mustafa Kemal placed Fevzi Зakmak, Kвzэm Цzalp and Эsmet Эnцnь in political positions where they could institute his reforms. Mustafa Kemal capitalized on his reputation as an efficient military leader and spent the following years, up until his death in 1938, instituting political, economic, and social reforms. In doing so, he transformed Turkish society from perceiving itself as a Muslim part of a vast Empire into a modern, democratic, and secular nation-state. During 1937, indications that Atatьrk's health was worsening started to appear. In early 1938, while he was on a trip to Yalova, he suffered from a serious illness. He went to Эstanbul for treatment, where he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. During his stay in Эstanbul, he made an effort to keep up with his regular lifestyle for a while. He died on 10 November 1938, at the age of 57, in the Dolmabahзe Palace, where he spent his last days.[165] The clock in the bedroom where he died is still set to the time of his death, 9:05 in the morning.

Recep Tayyip ErdoGan

Recep Tayyip Erdoрan is a Turkish politician who currently serves as the incumbent 12th President of Turkey as of 28 August 2014. He previously served as the 25th Prime Minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as the Mayor of Эstanbul between 1994 and 1998. He founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001, leading it to three general election victories in 2002, 2007 and 2011 before stepping down as leader upon his election as President in 2014. Educated at a Imam Hatip school and graduating from Marmara University in 1981, Erdoрan was also a semi-professional footballer playing for Kasэmpaюa between 1969 and 1982 before being elected Mayor of Эstanbul from the Islamist Welfare Party in 1994. He was banned from office and sentenced to prison for 10 months after reciting a religiously incriminating poem in Siirt in 1998. He founded the moderately conservative AKP in 2001 and won the 2002 general election with nearly two-thirds of the seats in parliament with Abdullah Gul becoming Prime Minister of the first single-part government since 1987. Erdoрan became Prime Minister in March 2003 after Gьl's government annulled his political ban. As Prime Minister, Erdoрan began negotiations for Turkey's ascension to the European Union, presided over an economic recovery following an economic crash in 2001, initiated an allegedly Neo-Ottoman foreign policy, began a peace process with PKK separatists and held two successful referendums on constitutional reform in 2007 and 2010. At the same time, child poverty rose to 66% while Turkey suffered the highest number of workers' deaths in Europe, with 301 miners being killed in Soma in 2014. While maintaining controversial relations with exiled cleric Fethullah Gьlen,

Erdoрan and Gulen's Cemaat Movement were involved in curbing the political power of the military through the controversial Sledgehammer and Ergenekon court cases. Under his rule, several long-planned projects such as Marmaray and two high-speed train networks were completed as part of Erdoрan's 2023 vision for the centenary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923.Nationwide protests broke out against Erdoрan's allegedly authoritarian rule in 2013 and 2014. His government was internationally condemned for a brutal crackdown against protestors by the police and AKP youth members, which resulted in 22 deaths, Gьlen withdrawing his support from the AKP and talks with the EU stalling. A ?100 billion government corruption scandal resulted in the arrests of several family members of Erdoрan's cabinet ministers, which Erdoрan called a coup attempt by Gьlen's supporters in judicial and bureaucratic positions. Turkey blocked Twitter after Erdoрan himself was incriminated in a recording released on the Internet. Although the judiciary annulled the ban, Erdoрan's government has come under continued fire for media censorship, electoral fraud and disregard for the constitution and the rule of law. His critics and the political opposition have thus branded him as a dictator. Erdogan was named as the AKP candidate for the 2014 presidential election on 1 July, which he won with 51.79% of the vote amid claims of media bias. He was sworn in as the 12th President of Turkey on 28 August, with speculation that he would continue to pursue his political agenda while his new Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoрlu will take a docile approach.

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has been the President of Russia since 7 May 2012. He previously served as President from 2000 to 2008, and as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. During his last term as Prime Minister, he was also the Chairman of United Russia, the ruling party.For 16 years Putin served as an officer in the KGB, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before he retired to enter politics in his native Saint Petersburg in 1991. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined President Boris Yeltsin's administration where he rose quickly, becoming Acting President on 31 December 1999 when Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned. Putin won the subsequent 2000 presidential election and was reelected in 2004. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term in 2008. Dmitry Medvedev won the 2008 presidential election and appointed Putin as Prime Minister, beginning a period of so-called "tandemocracy". In September 2011, following a change in the law extending the presidential term from four years to six, Putin announced that he would seek a third, non-consecutive term as President in the 2012 presidential election, an announcement which led to large-scale protests in many Russian cities. He won the election in March 2012 and is serving a six-year term.

Many of Putin's actions are regarded by the domestic opposition and foreign observers as undemocratic. The 2011 Democracy Index stated that Russia was in "a long process of regression culminated in a move from a hybrid to an authoritarian regime" in view of Putin's candidacy and flawed parliamentary elections. In 2014, Russia was excluded from the G8 group as a result of its annexation of Crimea.

During Putin's first premiership and presidency (1999-2008), real incomes increased by a factor of 2.5, real wages more than tripled; unemployment and poverty more than halved, and the Russians' self-assessed life satisfaction rose significantly. Putin's first presidency was marked by high economic growth: the Russian economy grew for eight straight years, seeing GDP increase by 72% in PPP . However, as of October 2014, since Putin ascension to the presidency, the Russian Ruble has lost nearly half of its value against the Euro, 99% of its value against the Japanese Yen (since 2002), 22% against the United States Dollar (since 2002), 31% against the British Pound (since 2002), and nearly 56% against the Swiss Franc (since 2002), among other currencies. As Russia's president, Putin and the Federal Assembly passed into law a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. As Prime Minister, Putin oversaw large-scale military and police reform. His energy policy has affirmed Russia's position as an energy superpower.[citation needed] Putin supported high-tech industries such as the nuclear and defence industries. A rise in foreign investment contributed to a boom in such sectors as the automotive industry. However, capital investment recently dropped 2.5% because of the crisis in Ukraine according to forecasts by economists from the IMF. Putin has cultivated a strongman image and is a pop cultural icon in Russia.

Barack Hussein Obama

Barack Hussein Obama is the 44th and current President of the United States, and the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, running unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 2000.

In 2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his election, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

During his first two years in office, Obama signed into law economic stimulus legislation in response to the Great Recession in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other major domestic initiatives in his first term included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare"; the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. In foreign policy, Obama ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War, increased U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered U.S. military involvement in Libya, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. In November 2010, the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives as the Democratic Party lost a total of 63 seats; and, after a lengthy debate over federal spending and whether or not to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

Obama was re-elected president in November 2012, defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2013. During his second term, Obama has promoted domestic policies related to gun control in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and has called for full equality for LGBT Americans, while his administration has filed briefs which urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 and California's Proposition 8 as unconstitutional. In foreign policy, Obama ordered U.S. military involvement in Iraq in response to gains made by the Islamic State in Iraq after the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, and has continued the process of ending U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan.

Ilham Aliyev

Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev is the fourth and current President of Azerbaijan, since 2003. He also functions as the Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party and the head of the National Olympic Committee. Apart from his native Azerbaijani, he speaks English, French, Russian, and Turkish. Ilham Aliyev is the son of Heydar Aliyev, who was Azerbaijan's president from 1993 to 2003.Ilham Aliyev's image remains largely controversial. He has been criticized for his authoritarian rule and sometimes described as the head of corruption in Europe by analysts and political commentators. Aliyev's government has been listed as one of the most corrupt in Europe by Transparency International. In 2009, following his reelection as president, Aliyev passed a referendum which removed the presidential consecutive term limit, thereby allowing him to run for president as many times as he wishes. Opposition claimed this to be a violation of the Azerbaijani constitution and the European convention on human rights.In 2013, Ilham Aliyev faced criticism from the United States and Amnesty International for election 'irregularities' along with crackdowns against journalists and opposition activists, including the jailing of election monitors.

Statements about Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh

Aliyev has been cited as calling all Armenian people in the world as the enemies of Azerbaijan, and as regularly threatening to take over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the entire Armenian Republic through military force.In 2008, Aliyev declared that “Nagorno Karabakh will never be independent; the position is backed by international mediators as well; Armenia has to accept the reality" and that "in 1918, Yerevan was granted to the Armenians. It was a great mistake. The khanate of Iravan was the Azeri territory, the Armenians were guests there."

Corruption

In 2012 the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) named Ilham Aliyev Person of the Year (a title bestowed for figuring prominently in 2012 on stories on crime and corruption) after "well-documented evidence" revealed that "his family has secret ownership stakes in the country's largest businesses including bank, construction companies, gold mines and phone companies".[36] According to ICIJ latest report, Aliyev's family has been a shareholder of big offshore companies. As reported by The Washington Post and Mail Online, Aliyev's two daughters share a property portfolio of about Ј50?million - across Dubai, Paris and London and Aliyev's 11-year-old son in Dubai owns "nine waterfront mansions" with a total price of "about $44 million - or roughly 10,000 years' worth of salary for the average citizen of Azerbaijan"

Mammad Amin Rasulzade

Mammad Amin Rasulzade was an Azerbaijani statesman, scholar, public figure and the first and only president of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan (1918-1920). His expression "The flag once raised will never fall!" has become the motto of the independence movement in Azerbaijan in the 20th century.

After the Amnesty Act of 1913, dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, Rasulzade returned to Baku, left the Hummet party he was previously member of, and joined the then secret Musavat (Equality) party in 1913, established in 1911, which initially promoted pan-Islamist, pan-Turkist and Socialist ideas, or more precisely Pan-Islamism yet with affinity for greater cultural bonds with the Turkic world, and which eventually became Azerbaijani nationalist party, and quickly became its chief. In 1915 he started to publish party's newspaper "Aзэq Sцz" (Open word) which lasted till 1918.

When February Revolution happened, Musavat together with other secret political parties in Russian Empire quickly legalized and became a leading party of Caucasian Muslims after it merged with Party of Turkic Federalists headed by Nasib Yusifbeyli. October revolution in 1917 lead to secession of Transcaucasia from Russia and Rasulzade became head of Muslim faction in the Seym, parliament of Transcaucasian Federation. After the dissolution of the Transcaucasian Federation Muslim faction re-organized into Azerbaijani National Council, whose head Rasulzade was unanimously elected in May 1918.

On May 28, 1918, the Azerbaijani National Council, headed by Rasulzade, declared an independent Azerbaijan Republic. Rasulzade also initiated the establishment of Baku State University together with Rashid Khan Gaplanov, minister of education with the funding of oil baron Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev in 1919. Rasulzade taught Ottoman literature at the University.

After the collapse of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in April 1920, Rasulzade left Baku and went into hiding in the mountainous village of Lahij to direct the resistance to Sovietization, but in August 1920, after Soviet Russian army crushed the rebellions of Ganja, Karabakh, Zagatala and Lankaran, led by ex-officers of the Azerbaijani National Army, Rasulzade was arrested and brought to Baku. It was only due to his earlier rescue of Joseph Stalin in 1905, that Rasulzade was released and transferred from Azerbaijan to Russia. For the next two years, Rasulzade worked as the press representative at the Commissariat on Nations in Moscow. He was seconded to Saint Petersburg in 1922 from where he escaped to Finland.

For the rest of his life, Rasulzade lived in exile first in Turkey. He died in 1955, a broken man according to Thomas Goltz,[18] and was buried in Cebeci Asri cemetery in Ankara.

Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the latter stages of the French Revolution and its associated wars in Europe.

As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814 and again in 1815. He implemented a wide array of liberal reforms across Europe, including the abolition of feudalism and the spread of religious toleration.His legal code in France, the Napoleonic Code, influenced numerous civil law jurisdictions worldwide. Napoleon is remembered for his role in leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won the large majority of his battles and seized control of most of continental Europe in a quest for personal power and to spread the ideals of the French Revolution Widely regarded as one of the greatest commanders in history, his campaigns are studied at military academies worldwide. He remains one of the most studied political and military leaders in all of history.

Napoleon was born in Corsica in a family of noble Italian ancestry that had settled in Corsica in the 16th century. He spoke French with a heavy Corsican accent. Well-educated, he rose to prominence under the French First Republic and led successful campaigns against the enemies of the French revolution who set up the First and Second Coalitions, most notably his campaigns in Italy.

He took power in a coup d'йtat in 1799 and installed himself as First Consul. In 1804 he made himself emperor of the French people. He fought a series of wars--the Napoleonic Wars--that involved complex coalitions for and against him. After a streak of victories, France secured a dominant position in continental Europe, and Napoleon maintained the French sphere of influence through the formation of extensive alliances and the elevation of friends and family members to rule other European countries as French vassal states.

The Peninsular War (1807-14) and the French invasion of Russia in 1812 marked major military failures. His Grande Armйe was badly damaged and never fully recovered. In 1813, the Sixth Coalition defeated his forces at the Battle of Leipzig and his enemies invaded France. Napoleon was forced to abdicate and go in exile to the Italian island of Elba. In 1815 he escaped and returned to power, but he was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. He spent the last six years of his life in confinement by the British on the island of Saint Helena. An autopsy concluded he died of stomach cancer but there has been debate about the cause of his death, and some scholars have speculated he was a victim of arsenic poisoning.

In February 1821, Napoleon's health began to deteriorate rapidly, and on 3 May two British physicians, who had recently arrived, attended on him but could only recommend palliatives. He died two days later, after confession, Extreme Unction and Viaticum in the presence of Father Ange Vignali. His last words were, "France, army, head of the army, Josйphine."

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the only woman to have held the office. A Soviet journalist called her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.

Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition and became the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became Prime Minister after winning the 1979 general election.

On moving into 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives intended to reverse high unemployment and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an ongoing recession. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment until the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983.

Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987. During this period her support for a Community Charge (referred to as the "poll tax") was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the county of Lincolnshire, which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. After a series of small strokes in 2002, she was advised to withdraw from public speaking, and in 2013 she died of another stroke in London at the age of 87.

Angela Merkel

Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German politician and a former research scientist, who has been the Chancellor of Germany since 2005 and the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2000. She is the first woman to hold either office,[2] the first German Chancellor to be born after World War II, and the first post-reunification Chancellor to be raised in the former East Germany (though she was actually born in the former West Germany).

Having earned a doctorate as a physical chemist, Merkel entered politics in the wake of the Revolutions of 1989, briefly serving as the deputy spokesperson for the first democratically elected East German Government in 1990. Following the German reunification in 1990, she was elected to the Bundestag for Stralsund-Nordvorpommern-Rьgen in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a seat she has held ever since. She was later appointed as the Federal Minister for Women and Youth in 1991 under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and became the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety in 1994, serving until 1998. After the CDU/CSU coalition was defeated in 1998, she was elected Secretary-General of the CDU, before being elected the party's first ever woman as leader in 2000.

Following the 2005 federal election, she was appointed Germany's first female Chancellor at the head of a grand coalition consisting of her own CDU party, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained the largest share of the vote, and Merkel was able to form a coalition government with the support of the CSU, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP). At the 2013 federal election, Merkel led the CDU/CSU to a landslide victory with 41.5% of the vote and formed a second grand coalition with the SPD, after the FDP lost all of its representation in the Bundestag.

In 2007, Merkel was President of the European Council and chaired the G8, the second woman (after Margaret Thatcher) to do so. She played a central role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the Berlin Declaration. One of her priorities was also to strengthen transatlantic economic relations by signing the agreement for the Transatlantic Economic Council on 30 April 2007. Merkel is seen as playing a crucial role in managing the financial crisis at the European and international level, and has been referred to as "the decider." In domestic policy, health care reform and problems concerning future energy development have been major issues of her tenure. aliyev putin merkel leader political

Angela Merkel has been described as the de facto leader of the European Union, and was ranked as the world's second most powerful person by Forbes magazine in 2013, the highest ranking ever achieved by a woman, and is now ranked fifth. On 26 March 2014, she became the longest-serving incumbent head of government in the European Union. On 28 May 2014, she was named the most powerful woman in the world, also by Forbes.

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