Meral Ak?ener (born 18 July 1956) is a Turkish politician. She served as Minister of the Interior and was a vice-speaker of the Parliament. In 2016, she led a group of opposition within the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) against its leader Devlet Bahçeli. On 25 October 2017, she founded ?yi Party, of which she is the leader.
Video Meral Ak?ener
Early and personal life
Meral Ak?ener was born on 18 July 1956, in the Gündo?du neighborhood of ?zmit, Kocaeli. Her father Tahir Ömer and her mother S?dd?ka are Balkan Muslims from Thessaloniki. They were among hundreds of thousands who left Greece to resettle in Turkey in 1923.
She studied history at Istanbul University and she completed her post graduate studies at the Social Sciences Institute of Marmara University, earning a Ph.D. in history. She then worked as a lecturer at Y?ld?z Technical University, Kocaeli University and Marmara University before entering politics.
Ak?ener has been described as a devout Muslim who prays regularly. She is known to her supporters as Asena, after the mythical she-wolf.
Maps Meral Ak?ener
Politics
She quit her post as a university department chair in 1994 and entered politics with the general elections in 1995 as deputy of Istanbul Province with the True Path Party (DYP). Ak?ener was Minister of the Interior between 8 November 1996 and 30 June 1997, replacing Mehmet A?ar, who resigned as a result of his involvement in the Susurluk scandal. She was later forced out of office after the 1997 military memorandum.
Ak?ener was re-elected to parliament in the 1999 general election as deputy of Kocaeli Province. Later, she was re-elected in the general elections of 2007 and 2011 representing Istanbul Province as a member of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
She was elected vice-speaker of the parliament alongside Güldal Mumcu, another female politician, serving at this post after Nermin Neftçi, who was elected in 1968 to be Turkey's first female vice-speaker.
She split with the MHP leadership in 2016 over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's bid to transform Turkey's constitution, and promised to start her own political party. She is a 2018 presidential candidate.
She announced the foundation of the Good Party on 25 October 2017 and revealed its logo and aims. "I call it the movement of the brave," she said. In her first address to her followers, Ak?ener stated she believed that Turkish democracy is "under threat" and the Good Party wants a free society and to fix the problems of the Turkish judiciary system. Ak?ener further stated the "media should not be under pressure. Democratic participation, a strong parliament and the national will are irreplaceable. We will democratize the law on political parties in the of contemporary democratic principles and the criteria of the Venice Commission." Aksener said that many who are joining her movement are young Turkish citizens who are "chafing under the restrictions" imposed by the government on public gatherings, freedom of expression, and constraints placed on the media.
References
External links
- @meral_aksener Twitter
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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