Beşir Atalay

Beşir Atalay MP
Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
In office 14 July 2011 – 29 August 2014
Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Serving with	Bülent Arınç Ali Babacan Bekir Bozdağ Emrullah İşler
Preceded by	Cemil Çiçek
Succeeded by	Numan Kurtulmuş
Minister of the Interior
In office 28 August 2007 – 14 July 2011
Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Preceded by	Abdülkadir Aksu
Succeeded by	İdris Naim Şahin
Minister of state
In office 19 November 2002 – 28 August 2007
Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Member of the Grand National Assembly
In office 1 November 2015 – 24 June 2018
Constituency	Van (Nov 2015)
In office 14 November 2002 – 7 June 2015
Constituency	Ankara (II) (2002, 2007) Kırıkkale (2011)
Personal details
Born	(1947-01-15) 15 January 1947 (age 77) Keskin, Turkey
Political party	Justice and Development Party (2001 - 2019)
Alma mater	Ankara University

Beşir Atalay (pronounced [beʃiɾ ˈataɫaj]; born 1947) is a Turkish politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey in the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from 2011 to 2014. Previously he was minister of interior from 28 August 2007 to 14 July 2011.

Early years and academic career

Born in Keskin, Kırıkkale Province, he graduated from the Faculty of Law at Ankara University and worked as a lecturer at Atatürk University in Erzurum. He then worked at the State Planning Organization (DPT), Marmara University, and UNESCO's Turkish National Commission. Atalay was the founding rector of the Kırıkkale University until he was removed from office by the Board of Higher Education (YÖK) in the aftermath of the Turkish military memorandum of 1997, on grounds he was involved in activities contrary to the interests of the state.^[1]

Political career

In the General Elections of 2002, he was elected a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey representing Ankara for the AKP^[2] and later he became a minister of state in Erdoğan's first cabinet following President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's veto of a proposal to appoint Atalay as minister of education. Then in August 2007 he was appointed interior minister, one of the few cabinet changes following the re-election of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that summer, and also following Sezer's retirement from the presidency. In 2009, he was assigned with the task to find a solution to the Turkish Kurdish conflict, a project which lasted until December 2009 and was not supported by the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).^[3] In 2011, he was named deputy prime minister with the responsibility of human rights and the fight against terrorism and served in the post until 2014. He was re-elected to the Turkish Parliament in the general elections of November 2015, this time representing the province of Van for the AKP,^[4] but did not stand as a candidate in 2018.^[1]

Personal life

Beşir Atalay is married to Yıldız Atalay and has three children. He is a member of the Community of İskenderpaşa, a Turkish sufistic community of Naqshbandi tariqah.^[5]

Notes

1. "Who's who in Politics in Turkey" (PDF). Heinrich Böll Stiftung. pp. 60–61. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
2. "Ankara Seçim Sonuçları". secim.haberler.com. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
3. Yeğen, Mesut (2015). "The Kurdish Peace Process in Turkey: Genesis, Evolution and Prospects" (PDF). www.files.ethz.ch. p. 6–7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-08-18. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
4. "Seçim sonuçları 2015 – 1 Kasım Van seçim sonuçları son dakika". www.sozcu.com.tr. Archived from the original on 2017-04-11. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
5. Eurasia Review: "The Naqshbandi-Khalidi Order And Political Islam In Turkey – Analysis" Hudson Institute. 5 September 2015

References

• Biyografi.net - Biography of Beşir Atalay

Political offices
Preceded by Abdülkadir Aksu	Minister of the Interior 2007–2011	Succeeded by İdris Naim Şahin
Preceded by Cemil Çiçek	First Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey 2011–2014	Succeeded by Numan Kurtulmuş