Fatma Bülbül
22 September 2015•Update: 22 September 2015
ANKARA
Turkey’s prime minister named two new members of the country’s interim government Tuesday, following the resignations of Peoples’ Democratic Party ministers earlier in the day.
Beril Dedeoglu was appointed EU minister, with responsibilities as Turkey’s chief negotiator with the bloc, while Mustafa Cuneyd Duzyol was named development minister, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Dedeoglu said she felt it her duty to respond to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s offer to join the cabinet.
“If my name is selected to serve the needs of the country during its transition process, I do not think that I have the luxury of objecting to that,” she said.
“I, as a person who believes in doing what should be done for the country, accepted the duty with pleasure.”
Dedeoglu was born in 1961 in Ankara. She is head of the department of international relations at Galatasaray University and has focused on the EU, Turkish foreign policy and international security in her academic research.
She also writes regular columns for the Star and Today's Zaman newspapers and is married with two children.
Duzyol was born in Izmir in 1964 and graduated in civil engineering from Middle East Technical University.
He has been undersecretary at the development ministry since 2014 and is married with two children.
Earlier, Ali Haydar Koca and Muslum Dogan quit as EU minister and development minister respectively over the government’s handling of the renewed conflict between the terrorist organization PKK and the Turkish state.
Turkey is holding a rerun of the June general election on Nov. 1 after no party won an overall majority and coalition talks failed.
