Turkey: Brief profiles of new members of interim Cabinet

ANKARA

While there were several new names in the interim Cabinet members’ list announced by the Turkish prime minister on Friday, there were also 14 ministers from the previous government who were able to retain their posts.

The 13 ministers who kept their posts include Minister of Finance Mehmet Simsek; Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Fikri Isik; Minister of Youth and Sports Akif Cagatay Kilic; Minister of National Education Nabi Avci; Minister of Forestry and Water Works Veysel Eroglu; Minister of Health Mehmet Muezzinoglu; Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci; Minister of Defence Vecdi Gonul; Minister of Environment and Urban Planning Idris Gulluce; Minister of Transportation, Maritime and Communication Feridun Bilgin; Justice Minister Kenan Ipek; and Deputy Prime Ministers Yalcin Akdogan and Numan Kurtulmus.

Davutoglu, prime minister since August 2014, also retained his post.

However, 11 former ministers were left out of the interim Cabinet.

Eight out of these 11 ministers were former Deputy Prime Ministers’ Bulent Arinc and Ali Babacan; former Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu; former Minister of Labor and Social Security Faruk Celik; former Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz; former Minister of Customs and Trade Nurettin Canikli; former Minister of Culture and Tourism Omer Çelik; and former Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Mehdi Eker, who were not nominated in the June 7 election since they had already served as parliamentarians for three terms, which was the limit in accordance with AK Party’s statute.

Meanwhile, former Minister of Family and Social Policies Aysenur Islam, former EU Minister Volkan Bozkir and former Interior Minister Sebahattin Ozturk were replaced.

In total, there are 14 ministers, including the prime minister from the Justice and Development (AK) Party; two from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and one from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the interim government. The rest of the 9 ministers are all non-parliamentarians. The list of interim Cabinet has also been announced in Turkey's official gazette.

Among new names in the interim Cabinet is the son of a founding member of a political party which had officially announced not to take part in the caretaker government and also Turkey’s first headscarf wearing minister.

Following is a brief profile of the new ministers:

Deputy Prime Minister Tugrul Turkes

Turkes is an elected lawmaker from the MHP. He is the son of the late MHP founder Alparslan Turkes. He was born in 1954 in Istanbul and graduated from the Ankara-based Hacettepe University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. The MHP had officially announced not to take part in the caretaker government.

Development Minister Muslum Dogan

Dogan is an elected lawmaker from the HDP. The 56-year-old served for many years at Turkey's Social Security Institution at several posts. 

Minister of EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Ali Haydar Konca

Konca is another HDP lawmaker. He was born in 1947 in eastern Mus province. He graduated from Ankara University’s Faculty of Law and served as district governor for years, which later ended with the 1980 military coup in Turkey. Following the coup, he was given his office again.

Minister of Family and Social Policies Aysen Gurcan

Gurcan is the first headscarf wearing minister in the history of the Republic of Turkey. She previously served as an academic at the Istanbul Trade University's Department of Educational Sciences.

She also served as head of General Directorate of Family and Social Research in the past. She was born in southwestern Burdur province and has three children.  

Foreign Minister Feridun Hadi Sinirlioglu

Sinirlioglu has been a long-standing diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was serving as an undersecretary at the ministry before he was given the interim post.

He served as Turkey's ambassador in Tel Aviv between 2002 and 2007. He graduated from Political Sciences and International Relations at the Istanbul-based Bogazici University.

Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yilmaz

Yilmaz is an elected AK Party deputy from Diyarbakir. He was the development minister in the previous cabinet. He was born in Bingol in 1967.

Culture and Tourism Minister Yalcin Topcu

Topcu was born in Ardahan in 1957.  He was among the founders of the nationalist Great Union Party (BBP). He became the BBP chairman in 2009. He resigned from the party in February 2014.

Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock Kutbettin Arzu

Arzu is a deputy from the AK Party. He was born in Diyarbakir in 1955. He was the deputy minister of Agriculture in the last government.

Customs and Trade Minister Cenap Asci   

Asci was previously the undersecretary of the ministry. He served at several posts in the ministry since 1989. He was born in central Aksaray province in 1967.

Interior Minister Selami Altinok

Altinok was before the acting head of the Security Department of Istanbul. 

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Ali Riza Alaboyun

Alaboyun is an elected AK Party lawmaker. He was born in Aksaray province in 1957. Before, he served as the Turkish group chairman of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Minister of Labor and Social Security Ahmet Erdem

Erdem previously served as adviser at the Prime Ministry and undersecretary of the Labor and Social Security Ministry. He was born in northern Tokat province in 1956.