Aziz Kocaoğlu (

Erbaa Erbaa is a town and a district (''ilçe'') of Tokat Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The town of Erbaa lies on the left bank of the Kelkit River and is surrounded by the Erbaa Plain, most of which lies in its district. One kilometer e ...

12 July 1948) is a Turkish politician who was Mayor of

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban agglo ...

, Turkey's third largest city, from 2004 to 2019.

Life and career

He was born in 1948 at

Tokat Province Tokat Province ( tr, ) is a province in northern Turkey. Its adjacent provinces are Amasya to the northwest, Yozgat to the southwest, Sivas to the southeast, and Ordu to the northeast. Its capital is Tokat, which lies inland of the middle Black S ...

, a landlocked province in the

Black Sea Region The Black Sea Region ( tr, Karadeniz Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The largest city in the region is Samsun. Other big cities are Trabzon, Ordu, Tokat, Giresun, Rize, Amasya and Sinop. It is bordered by the Marmara Region to the ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. He graduated from the Economy School of İzmir's

Ege University Ege University or Aegean University ( tr, Ege Üniversitesi) is a public research university in Bornova, İzmir. It was founded in 1955 with the faculties of Medicine and Agriculture. It is the first university to start courses in İzmir and the ...

in 1973 and received a master's degree in management from

Istanbul University , image = Istanbul_University_logo.svg , image_size = 200px , latin_name = Universitas Istanbulensis , motto = tr, Tarihten Geleceğe Bilim Köprüsü , mottoeng = Science Bridge from Past to the Future , established = 1453 1846 1933 ...

in 1974. Between 1975 and 1978 he was an accountant in a public institution. In 1979, he launched his own business in furniture and ceramics. At the same time, he started his political activities in the frame of the youth branch of CHP. After the general interruption of political activities in the 1980s in Turkey, in 1987 he joined the SHP, which was the country's main center-left party at the time. After SHP and the re-established CHP were merged, he became a CHP member again, pursuing and developing his business activities at the same time. Rising in the rank and file of

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party ( tr, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, , acronymized as CHP ) is a Kemalist and social-democratic political party in Turkey which currently stands as the main opposition party. It is also the oldest political party ...

's İzmir branch, he was elected as Mayor of

Bornova Bornova is a metropolitan district of İzmir in İzmir Province in Turkey. It is the third largest district in İzmir's Greater Metropolitan Area of and is almost fully urbanized at the rate of 98.6 percent, with corresponding high levels of devel ...

(a metropolitan district of İzmir) after the local elections of 28 March 2004. Following the sudden death of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality mayor

Ahmet Piriştina Ahmet Piriştina (8 April 1952 – 15 June 2004) was a Turkish politician who was Mayor of İzmir from 1999 to 2004. He was of Albanian descent. Piriştina was born in İzmir, Turkey. He was elected as Mayor of İzmir in two consecutive ele ...

, Kocaoğlu was elected by CHP's İzmir branch to the post of metropolitan mayor in June 2004. Since then, although drawing a quieter profile than his predecessor, Aziz Kocaoğlu established himself with his orderly conduct of the city's affairs, sound financial management and smooth human relations, as exemplified during the

Universiade The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

2005 games which

had assumed. On 1 October 2018, he announced that he would not be a candidate in the

Turkish local elections, 2019 The Turkish local elections of 2019 were held on Sunday 31 March 2019 throughout the 81 provinces of Turkey. A total of 30 metropolitan and 1,351 district municipal mayors, alongside 1,251 provincial and 20,500 municipal councillors were elected, ...

to be held on 31 March 2019. Aziz Kocaoğlu is married and has two children.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kocaoglu, Aziz 1948 births People from İzmir Living people Mayors of İzmir Contemporary Republican People's Party (Turkey) politicians Social Democracy Party (Turkey) politicians 20th-century Turkish politicians