Metin Balkanlıoğlu (1958–2018) was a Turkish Islamic cleric.

Biography

Abdülmetin Balkanlıoğlu was born in 1958 in Aşağıfındıklı, Sungurlu. He graduated from

Çorum Çorum () is a northern Anatolian city in Turkey. Çorum is located inland in the central Black Sea Region of Turkey and is approximately from Ankara and from Istanbul. It is the seat of Çorum Province and of Çorum District.< ...

İmam Hatip school In Turkey, an İmam Hatip school (, 'hatip' coming from Arabic '' khatib'') is a secondary education institution. As the name suggests, they were founded in lieu of a vocational school to train government employed imams; after madrasas in Turke ...

in 1977, and from

Istanbul University Istanbul University, also known as University of Istanbul (), is a Public university, public research university located in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded by Mehmed II on May 30, 1453, a day after Fall of Constantinople, the conquest of Constantinop ...

Faculty of Law in 1986. He began working as an imam in

Şile Şile is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 800 km2, and its population is 43,464 (2022). Bordering Şile is the province of Kocaeli Province, Kocaeli (districts of G ...

in 1977. He was one of the leaders of the İsmailağa community. Balkanlıoğlu was married and had 2 children. He held nationalist views and supported

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

. He frequently made speeches against Gülenists,

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

, Erbakanists, and the Turkish opposition. Shortly after an infamous controversial speech where he angrily called for excessive force against Kurdish militants, he had a heart attack, and died on June 20, 2018 aged 60. His funeral was held at

Fatih Mosque The Fatih Mosque (, "Conqueror's Mosque" in English language, English) is an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman mosque off Fevzi Paşa Caddesi in the Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey. The original mosque was constructed between 1463 and 1470 on the site ...

and he was buried in Edirnekapı.

References

{{Reflist 1958 births 2018 deaths