Cemil Çiçek

Cemil Çiçek (pronounced [dʒemil tʃitʃec]; 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.

Cemil Çiçek
Çiçek in 2014
25th Speaker of the Grand National Assembly
In office 4 July 2011 – 23 June 2015
President	Abdullah Gül Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Deputy	Sadık Yakut Mehmet Sağlam (2011-13) Ayşe Nur Bahçekapılı (2013-15) Güldal Mumcu Meral Akşener
Preceded by	Mehmet Ali Şahin
Succeeded by	İsmet Yılmaz
Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
In office 28 August 2007 – 28 June 2011
Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Serving with	Hayati Yazıcı Nazım Ekren Bülent Arınç Ali Babacan
Preceded by	Abdullah Gül
Succeeded by	Beşir Atalay
Minister of Justice
In office 20 November 2002 – 8 May 2007
Prime Minister	Abdullah Gül Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Preceded by	Aysel Çelikel
Succeeded by	Fahri Kasırga
Minister of State (Responsible for Energy and Natural Resources)
In office 6 March 1996 – 28 June 1996
Prime Minister	Mesut Yılmaz
Minister of State (Responsible for Family Affairs)
In office 21 December 1987 – 23 June 1991
Prime Minister	Turgut Özal Yıldırım Akbulut
Member of the Grand National Assembly
In office 1 November 2015 – 24 June 2018
Constituency	Ankara (II) (Nov 2015)
In office 8 January 1996 – 7 June 2015
Constituency	Ankara (I) (1995, 1999, 2002, 2007) Ankara (II) (2011)
In office 14 December 1987 – 20 October 1991
Constituency	Yozgat (1987)
Personal details
Born	(1946-11-15) 15 November 1946 (age 78) Yozgat, Turkey
Political party	Justice and Development Party (2001-nowadays)
Other political affiliations	National Salvation Party [1973–1980]*Motherland Party (1983–1998)*Virtue Party [1998–2001]
Relations	Mehmet Çiçek (cousin)
Alma mater	Istanbul University
Occupation	Politician

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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:

• the 2003 Istanbul bombings
• the release of former MP Leyla Zana from prison,
• the prosecutions of a number of police officers accused of torturing prisoners,
• an attempted suicide bombing of his ministry.

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.^[1] 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.^[2]

Quotes

• The mentality of the general public is the prime obstacle to rule of law (in Turkey). "Our public does not want justice, they just want their own affairs sorted out. They want to see corruption investigated but they are not ashamed to manage their own affairs corruptly. The public actually doesn't care about corruption. They say "let someone tackle it while we watch and see who wins" as if it were a football match. He then went to blame the professional bodies for not exposing corruption among their members.^[3]
• The Islamic world will get nowhere by blaming all its problems on the outside world and making itself out to be a white spoon just pulled out of the milk^[4]
• (Upon the release from prison of Leyla Zana..)The Turkish courts have played their part. Now the EU has no excuse (not to begin entry negotiations with Turkey)
• Article 138 of the Constitution has become extinct in this country (the article that guarantees the independence of the judiciary)^[5]

References

1. Ali Aslan Kılıç (4 July 2011). "Çiçek elected as new parliament speaker in third round of voting". Today's Zaman. Ankara. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
2. "AK Parti'den 22 isim yeniden aday olmadı". www.trthaber.com (in Turkish). 3 May 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
3. Newspaper Radikal Archived 1 December 2004 at the Wayback Machine (in Turkish)
4. Newspaper Zaman, 28 November 2003 Archived 21 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine (in Turkish)
5. Parliament Speaker: Independence of judiciary done away with. Today's Zaman. 3 January 2014. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2014.

Political offices
Preceded by Hakkı Borataş	Mayor of Yozgat 1 January 1984 – 1 January 1988	Succeeded by Mustafa Erkılıç
Preceded by Bülent Akarcalı	Acting Minister of Health 26 June 1988 – 6 July 1988	Succeeded by Nihat Kitapçı
Preceded by Aysel Çelikel	Minister of Justice 18 November 2002 – 8 May 2007	Succeeded by Fahri Kasırga
Preceded by Abdullah Gül	Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey 28 August 2007 – 28 June 2011	Succeeded by Beşir Atalay
Preceded by Mehmet Ali Şahin	Speaker of the Parliament of Turkey 4 July 2011 – 8 June 2015	Succeeded by Deniz Baykal