Abdullah Gül (born October 29, 1950) is the 11th President of the Republic of Turkey. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's selection of Gül as a presidential candidate drew strong and highly vocal opposition from ardent supporters of secularism in Turkey.
In May 2007, Gül's first bid for presidency was blocked by the Constitutional court in a climate of secularist concern regarding views Gül had expressed during his Welfare Party years, and the fact that his wife wears a hijab, a headscarf, seen by some as a symbol of political Islam.[1] However, following the parliamentary elections in July the same year, which were, like in 2002, won by the AKP, he was eventually voted in as Turkey's 11th president on August 28, 2007.
Early life
Born in Kayseri to Ahmet Hamdi, a mechanic, and Adeviye, his mother, Gül was brought up in a conservative family environment. His family has served in Güllük Camii in Kayseri for about one hundred years.[2]
Education
Gül studied economics at the University of Istanbul and wrote his dissertation there. During his graduate education, he studied for two years in London and Exeter. He pursued an academic career after that and worked at the higher education facilities in Adapazarı, collaborating in the establishment of a department for industrial engineering and teaching management courses of future Sakarya University. Between 1983 and 1991, he worked at the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). In 1991, Gül became a lecturer in international management.
First steps in politics
Gül became acquainted with right-wing politics early during his high school years. During his university education, he became a member of Islamist-nationalist Millî Türk Talebe Birliği (National Turkish Students' Union) in the line of Necip Fazıl's Büyük Doğu (Grand Orient) current.[citation needed]
He was elected a member of the Turkish parliament for Refah Partisi (RP, "the Welfare Party") from Kayseri Province in 1991 and 1995. During these years, he made statements about the political system of Turkey that was designed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the Turkish National Movement. These statements caused controversy when his candidacy for the 2007 presidential election was announced by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan.[3]
In 1999, he kept his seat as a member of Fazilet Partisi (FP, "the Virtue Party"), successor to Refah Partisi. He was among the founders of Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi ((AKP), "Justice and Development Party). He was elected once again to represent Kayseri, in 2002, and in November 2002 was appointed Prime Minister, as AK Party leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan was unable to assume the role due to a ban on his participation in politics.
Prime Minister and Foreign Minister
After becoming foreign minister in March 2003 Gül has become the key player in Turkey's attempts to receive an accession date for the European Union and in its attempts to improve relations with Syria and maintaining its relationship with the Turkic-speaking countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus. On February 6, 2007, Gül flew to the United States to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Presidential candidacy
Prime Minister Erdoğan announced on April 24, 2007 that Gül would be the Justice and Development Party candidate in the 2007 presidential election. Previously, there had been speculation that Erdoğan himself would be the party's candidate, which had provoked substantial opposition from secularists.[4][5] When a boycott of opposition parties in Parliament deadlocked the election process, Gül formally withdrew his candidacy on May 6, 2007.
But a few days later, on May 11 when inquired after the alterations to the Turkish constitution which now allowed the people to elect the president directly rather than a parliamentary vote, Gül announced that he was still intending to run on May 6.[6][7]
Following the July 2007 parliamentary election, the AKP renominated Gül as its presidential candidate on August 13; the election was again held as a vote of parliament.[8] On August 14, Gül submitted his candidacy application to parliament and expressed his commitment to secularism at a news conference.[9]
On August 28, 2007, he was elected president in the third round of voting; in the first two rounds, a two-thirds majority of MPs had been required, but in the third round he needed only a simple majority. Gül was sworn in immediately thereafter.[10] The process was a very low-key affair indeed: Gül's swearing-in was not attended by the Chief of the Turkish General Staff and was boycotted by the opposition Republican People's Party; then the hand-over of power at the presidential palace was held behind closed doors. Gül's wife, the head-scarfed Hayrünnisa, was nowhere to be seen.
Gül received messages of congratulation from the US, EU and German authorities while Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdoğan made a statement saying "a structure doomed to uncertainty has been overcome" (an oblique reference to the deep state theory that Turkey is ruled behind-closed-doors by a secret conspiracy of soldiers and bureacrats).
Personal life
On August 20, 1980, Abdullah Gül married Hayrünnisa Özyurt (b. 1965), his first cousin, when she was 16 years old.[11] The couple has three children, two sons named Mehmet Emre and Ahmet Münir and a daughter named Kübra. He is a dedicated fan of the football club Beşiktaş J.K..[12]
