Yaşar Bilgin (14 June 1950 in Mersin) is a Turkish-born German politician and cardiologist, holding a professorship and a doctorate in this field. He has been a member of the Christian Democratic Union since 2002 and has since been a member of the executive committee of the CDU Hessen. He is also the President of the Turkish-German Health Foundation. 

Bilgin was the Doctor of prominent figures like Turgut Özal and his wife Semra Özal, Süleyman Demirel, Alparslan Türkeş, Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu and Ismet Sezgin.

Education and medical career 
Bilgin studied Medicine both in Turkey and in Germany. Bilgin started his medical studies at the University of Istanbul in 1970 and finished them in 1979 at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany, where he also studied philosophy. From 1986 to 1989 he had stays abroad for scientific work in the field of heart transplantation in Louisville, Kentucky, after which he was recognized as a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology in Giessen. Bilgin has been a professor of cardiology since 1997.
Since 1996 Bilgin has been working as a senior physician at the Center for Internal Medicine at Justus Liebig University. Since 2015 he has been the head of the Intercultural Medical Clinic at the Gießen University Hospital.

Political Career
Since 1988 he has been chairman of the Turkish-German Health Foundation, the first foundation to look after the interests of Turkish people living in Germany. Since 1992 he has been chairman of the Council of Turkish Citizens with around 2,500 Turkish associations as members in Germany and a member of the Forum Against Racism at the Federal Ministry of the Interior. He is also Member of the German integration summit. 
Since 2002 Bilgin has been a member of the executive committee of the CDU Hessen and Chairman of the Avicenna-Award-Association.

Other activities 
 Chairman of the Council of Turkish Citizens in Germany
 Former President of the European Turkish Union
 Member of the integration advisory board of the Hessian state government
 Member of the forum against racism at the Federal Ministry of the Interior (Germany)
 Member of the Scientific Council of the American Heart Association
 Board Member of Hacettepe University
 Board member of Demiroğlu Bilim University
 Honorary Member of the Advisory Board of Turkish Citizens Abroad of the Republic of Türkiye
 Honorary Chairman of the Solidarity Association for Doctors (TÜRHED)

Awards 
 1993: Honorary Doctorate, Dicle University
 2001: Honorary doctorate, Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University
 2002: Bernhard-Christoph-Faust Award of the Hessian state government
 2009: High Order of Merit of the Turkish Parliament
 2010: Hessian Order of Merit
 2013: Honorary professorship, Bursa Uludağ University
 2014: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
 2019: Honorary doctorate, İnönü University

References

1950 births
Living people
People from Mersin
Turkish cardiologists
Academic staff of the University of Giessen
University of Giessen alumni
Turkish emigrants to Germany
Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians
German cardiologists