25th Speaker of the Parliament of Turkey
Cemil Çiçek (; born 15 November 1946) is a Turkish politician who was the Speaker of the Parliament of Turkey between 4 July 2011 and 7 June 2015. Previously he was Minister of Justice from 2002 to 2007 and Deputy Prime Minister from 2007 to 2011. He was also a Justice and Development Party Member of Parliament from Ankara.
Early life.
He was born on 15 November 1946 in Yozgat, Turkey. He graduated from the Law Faculty of Istanbul University. In 1983, he joined the centre-right ANAP. He became an ANAP MP for Yozgat, and in the late 1980s Minister of State responsible for "the family". In this role he was known for his conservative views on matters of sex and marriage.
Political career.
He later became Minister for Energy and Natural Resources but was expelled from ANAP in 1997, upon which he joined the Islamic leaning Fazilet Party, which later evolved into the AKP.
He was Minister of Justice in the first AKP government (from 2003 to 2007), when as a former ANAP MP he was thought to be one of the leading figures of the AKP most acceptable to the Turkish military. During his ministry, he had to deal with situations including:
His legislation included stricter controls of prisons (in 2006).
Speaker of the Parliament.
Cemil Çiçek of the AKP became the new parliament speaker of Turkey in the third round of voting on 4 July 2011. Çiçek received 302 votes in the first round voting, while Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) parliamentarian Tunca Toskay received 50 votes. The AKP's second candidate, Zelkif Kazdal, received 23 votes and withdrew his nomination after the first round. Çiçek went on to win 322 votes and Tunca Toskay won 52 in the second round of voting. Çiçek was elected as the new speaker with 322 votes in the third round, in which Toskay received 50 votes. Three votes were declared invalid. In his speech after his election, Çiçek appealed to the opposition parties that were boycotting Parliament to take their oaths. "Parliament should be a place of work, not of conflict. We have many issues to solve. We can't afford to waste any time," Çiçek said. Within the scope of the IV General Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic Speaking Countries (TURKPA), he took over the TURKPA Chairmanship from the Speaker of the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic as the Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly at the Assembly Council meeting on June 10, 2013.
In June 2018, he did not apply for parliamentary candidacy for the general elections.
References.
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