Berat Albayrak ( born 21 February 1978) is a Turkish businessman and former politician, and the son-in-law of Turkish president
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...
. He is a former CEO of
Çalık Holding
Çalık Holding is a Turkish company that has been operating in the energy, construction, mining, textile, finance, and telecom sectors since the 1980s. Founder and chairman Ahmet Çalık began his business career in the textile industry, foundin ...
. He was a
member of parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
from
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
in the
25th,
26th and
27th legislative sessions. He served as
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in the
64th and
65th government of Turkey and was the
Minister of Finance and Treasury in the
66th government until his unexpected resignation on 8 November 2020 citing health reasons.
His resignation was officially accepted on 9 November and he was succeeded by
Lütfi Elvan
Lütfi Elvan (born 12 March 1962) is a Turkish politician. Elvan has served as the Minister of Finance and Treasury of Turkey from November 2020 to December 2021. He previously served as the Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication f ...
on 10 November. In 2004, he married the daughter of Turkish president Erdoğan. Albayrak has been accused of involvement in
oil production and smuggling in the Islamic State.
Early life
Berat Albayrak was born on 21 February 1978, the son of
Sadık Albayrak
Sadık Albayrak (born 15 February 1942) is a Turkish journalist and author of around 40 books. He ran for parliament in 1977 general election from National Salvation Party. He again ran for parliament from Welfare Party in 1991 and 1995. His 1 ...
, a journalist and politician, and Kıymet Albayrak.
Albayrak is a graduate of Özel Fatih Koleji (High School) in Istanbul.
He graduated from the business department of
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
...
. He continued his education in New York City, where he earned a master's degree at
Pace University
Pace University is a private university with its main campus in New York City and secondary campuses in Westchester County, New York. It was established in 1906 by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace as a business school. Pac ...
's
Lubin School of Business
The Joseph I. Lubin School of Business is the business school of Pace University. The school was established in 1906 as the Pace School of Accountancy to prepare men and women for the CPA exam, and was named after Joseph I. Lubin, an alumnus an ...
. Albayrak received a PhD degree from
Kadir Has University
Kadir Has University, also known as KHAS, is a foundation university in Fatih, Istanbul, established in 1997 by Kadir Has, the late Turkish industrialist and philanthropist.
Kadir Has University has six faculties: Faculty of Art and Design; Fa ...
in 2011.
Albayrak received a PhD degree in the field of banking and finance with a dissertation about "Financing Renewable Energy Resources". His thesis advisor was
Erişah Arıcan, who sits on the boards of the Turkey Wealth Fund
and the
Borsa Istanbul
The Borsa İstanbul (abbreviated as BIST) is the sole exchange entity of Turkey combining the former Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) ( tr, İstanbul Menkul Kıymetler Borsası, IMKB), the Istanbul Gold Exchange ( tr, İstanbul Altın Borsası, İA ...
stock exchange.
It has been alleged that she wrote his PhD thesis.
His brother Serhat also had a senior position in
Çalık Holding
Çalık Holding is a Turkish company that has been operating in the energy, construction, mining, textile, finance, and telecom sectors since the 1980s. Founder and chairman Ahmet Çalık began his business career in the textile industry, foundin ...
.
Business career
Albayrak began his career in business in 1996.
Çalık Holding
In 1999, Albayrak started working for
Çalık Holding
Çalık Holding is a Turkish company that has been operating in the energy, construction, mining, textile, finance, and telecom sectors since the 1980s. Founder and chairman Ahmet Çalık began his business career in the textile industry, foundin ...
, in various positions in its Turkish and foreign subsidiaries.
In 2002, Albayrak became the financial director of the US office of Çalık Holding, while studying for an MBA at the
Lubin School of Business
The Joseph I. Lubin School of Business is the business school of Pace University. The school was established in 1906 as the Pace School of Accountancy to prepare men and women for the CPA exam, and was named after Joseph I. Lubin, an alumnus an ...
,
Pace University
Pace University is a private university with its main campus in New York City and secondary campuses in Westchester County, New York. It was established in 1906 by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace as a business school. Pac ...
in New York City. In 2004, Albayrak was appointed as the US country manager of Çalık Holding.
Upon his return to Turkey in 2006, Albayrak first served as the assistant general manager of financial affairs in Çalık Holding. He became the CEO in 2007,
Çalık Holding
Çalık Holding is a Turkish company that has been operating in the energy, construction, mining, textile, finance, and telecom sectors since the 1980s. Founder and chairman Ahmet Çalık began his business career in the textile industry, foundin ...
DR. BERAT ALBAYRAK - CEO
/ref> and was also made director of various subsidiaries. Albayrak was CEO of Çalık Holding until late 2013.
Educational foundations
Albayrak was the chairman of BTİ Educational Institutions, which he founded in April 2014. In October 2014, he established the Nun Education and Culture Foundation, with Serhat Albayrak and Ömer Faruk Kalyoncu.
Other activities
Albayrak gave lectures on banking and finance at Marmara University
Marmara University ( Turkish: ''Marmara Üniversitesi'') is a public university in Istanbul, Turkey.
The university is named after the Sea of Marmara and was founded as a university in 1982. However, it was created in 1883 under the name of ''H ...
, and wrote a column for daily newspaper ''Sabah
Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...
'' from 2008 until 2015.
Political career
Domestic politics
Albayrak became a Member of Parliament for the ruling Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being:
* Justice and Development Party (Morocco)
* Justice and Development Party (Turkey)
Justice and Development Party may also refer to:
* Justice and Dev ...
(AKP) after the June 2015 Turkish general election
General elections were held in Turkey on 7 June 2015 to elect 550 members to the Grand National Assembly. This was the 24th general election in the history of the Turkish Republic, electing the country's 25th Parliament. The result was the f ...
. At the 5th Ordinary Congress of the AK Party held on September 12, 2015, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu
Ahmet Davutoğlu (; born 26 February 1959) is a Turkish academic, politician and former diplomat who served as the 26th Prime Minister of Turkey and Leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) from 2014 to 2016. He previously served as M ...
was re-elected party leader of the AKP, while Berat Albayrak was elected to the Central Decision Executive Board (MKYK) and became part of the party's management. Albayrak was re-elected as Member of Parliament in the November 2015 Turkish general election
General elections were held in Turkey on 1 November 2015 to elect 550 members to the Grand National Assembly. They were the 25th general elections in the History of the Republic of Turkey and elected the country's 26th Parliament. The electio ...
.
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources
On 24 November 2015, he was appointed Minister for Energy and Natural Resources in the 64th Government of Turkey under the premiership of Ahmet Davutoğlu
Ahmet Davutoğlu (; born 26 February 1959) is a Turkish academic, politician and former diplomat who served as the 26th Prime Minister of Turkey and Leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) from 2014 to 2016. He previously served as M ...
.
Amid his tenure as Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Turkey's medium and long-term energy policies were arranged. It was called the “National Energy and Mine Strategy Paper”. Numerous pioneering energy projects were conducted in these terms, such as putting Turkey's first floating storage and regasification unit
A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive h ...
into service, making 1000 MW of the world's largest wind and solar tender upon domestic manufacture and R&D, setting in motion Turkey's first drilling vessel, achieving a mining land drilling depth of 1 million meters and declaring the National Boron Strategy. His tenure as energy minister saw power companies run up billions of dollars in debts as they borrowed cash to fund buyouts and expansion, while government caps on energy prices also eroded their bottom lines; the energy sector is believed to have contributed to the Turkish currency and debt crisis of 2018. He was reelected on 24 June 2018 to parliament under a new constitution.
ISIL oil sale allegations
In December 2015, Albayrak had been accused by Russians and Eren Erdem
Eren Erdem (born 14 August 1986) is a Turkish writer and politician from the Republican People's Party (CHP), who has served as a Member of Parliament for İstanbul since 7 June 2015.
Biography
Eren Erdem was born in Fatih, İstanbul on 1 ...
, a member of the Grand National Assembly
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...
for the opposition 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 ...
(CHP) of allegedly having links to sale of oil by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
through Turkey. The lawyer of Albayrak dismissed the claims saying that "the allegations are totally false and wrongly attributed.” In December 2016, WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...
released over 57,000 emails, from 2000 to 2016, allegedly obtained by the Marxist–Leninist RedHack
RedHack is a Turkish Marxist-Leninist computer hacker group founded in 1997. The group has claimed responsibility for hacking the websites of institutions which include the Council of Higher Education, Turkish police forces, the Turkish Army ...
that WikiLeaks stated were from Albayrak's personal emails, and which were alleged to link Albayrak with ISIL oil smuggling. ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' reported that the emails showed that "Albayrak had intimate knowledge of staffing and salary issues at Powertrans
Powertrans is an oil trading company in Turkey that was established in 2011.
In a controversial move, the company was given a monopoly on all the road and rail transportation of oil into Turkey from Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkish media reported in 20 ...
, a company which was controversially given a monopoly on the road and rail transportation of oil into the country from Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also incl ...
", adding that "Turkish media reported in 2014 and 2015 that Powertrans has been accused of mixing in oil produced by Isis in neighbouring Syria and adding it to local shipments which eventually reached Turkey". Albayrak had previously denied that he had any connection to Powertrans. In late 2016, John R. Bass
John Rodney Bass II (born 1964) is an American diplomat, who has served as the Under Secretary of State for Management since December 2021. He was the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2017 to 2020, the United States Ambassador to Turk ...
, the US Ambassador to Turkey, said that claims about a Turkish government's involvement in ISIL oil trade were unfounded, citing the official apology issued by the CIA with regards to such allegations in 2014. In April 2018, it was claimed that this Wikipedia entry on Albayrak stating the alleged oil trade with ISIS was among the four articles which led to the 2017-2020 Wikipedia ban.
Minister of Finance and Treasury
On 9 July 2018, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...
appointed Albayrak as economic chief of his new administration, in charge of a new ministry called Finance and Treasury, fueling investor unease about competence and orthodoxy of economic policymaking, with the Turkish lira
The lira ( tr, Türk lirası; sign: ₺; ISO 4217 code: TRY; abbreviation: TL) is the official currency of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. One lira is divided into one hundred ''kuruş''.
History
Ottoman lira (1844–1923)
The lira, along with t ...
losing 3.8 percent of its value within one hour after his appointment. Consequently, Albayrak had to resign from his position as deputy as the current Turkish constitution
The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Anayasası), also known as the Constitution of 1982, is Turkey's fundamental law. It establishes the organization of the government and sets out the principles and rules of ...
does not allow MPs to also be ministers.
In 2020, Albayrak launched the ‘1 million software developer’ project, a campaign to train at least a million software developers
A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software.
A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
in a project assisted with online courses. Albayrak announced on his official Instagram account on 8 November 2020 that he had resigned from the ministry of treasury and finance, citing his health problems and wishing to spend time with his family.
Football controversy
In 2019, minister Albayrak was gifted with Trabzonspor
Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Trabzon. Formed in 1967 through a merger of several local clubs, the men's football team has won seven Süper Lig championships. Trabzonspor also have a women's football team, ...
's new season jersey during his visit to Trabzon
Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the Bl ...
. He said, “This was the jersey of the season of 2010-2011. So, did they make the jersey of the season that the team became the champion?” Albayrak's comments sparked controversy on social media, accusing him of suggesting to the 2011 Turkish football match-fixing scandal
The 2011 Turkish Sports corruption scandal was an investigation about match fixing, incentive premium, bribery, establishing a criminal organization, organized crime and intimidation in Turkey's top two association football divisions, the Süper ...
, the season where Fenerbahçe won the trophy. Fenerbahçe S.K. released a statement, saying that the 2010-2011 trophy that was won with hard work is being exhibited in Fenerbahçe's museum. Fenerbahçe fans shouted slogans during a match of Fenerbahçe, calling on Albayrak to quit his post.
Personal life
Albayrak married Esra Erdoğan
Esra Erdoğan Albayrak (born 1983) is a Turkish sociologist. She is the daughter of the 12th President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the wife of the 66th Minister of Finance and Treasury, Berat Albayrak.
Family
Her father is Recep Tayy ...
in July 2004. They have four children; Ahmet Akif (b. 2006), Emine Mahinur (b. 2009), Sadık (b. 2015) and Hamza Salih (b. 2020).
With respect to the global Paradise Papers
The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsch ...
investigation, Albayrak in 2018 filed defamation lawsuits against journalist and International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C. with pe ...
member Pelin Ünker and her newspaper ''Cumhuriyet
''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: " Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Pres ...
'', not claiming factual errors or inaccuracies but seeking financial penalties for alleged damage to his reputation, after the newspaper in November 2017 published details on how politicians, multinational corporations and criminals had hidden money offshore and avoided taxes, including Albayrak-managed Çalık Holding and Albayrak's brother Serhat.
Awards
In October 2019, the U.K.-based business magazine '' GlobalCapital'' awarded Turkey's Finance and Treasury Ministry the Public Debt Management Office of the Year, for its "successful performance in debt management albeit difficult periods".
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albayrak, Berat
1978 births
Businesspeople from Istanbul
Deputies of Istanbul
Erdoğan family
Istanbul University alumni
Pace University alumni
Justice and Development Party (Turkey) politicians
Living people
Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey
Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey
Members of the 64th government of Turkey
Members of the 65th government of Turkey
Members of the 66th government of Turkey
Ministers of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey
Ministers of Finance of Turkey
Kadir Has University alumni