Selami Altınok (born 20 January 1966) is a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

civil servant and politician who served as the Minister of the Interior in the interim election government formed by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu between 28 August and 17 November 2015. He previously served as the

10th 10 (ten) is the even natural number following 9 and preceding 11. Ten is the base of the decimal numeral system, by far the most common system of denoting numbers in both spoken and written language. It is the first double-digit number. The rea ...

Governor of Aksaray from 2012 to 2014 and was appointed as the General Director of Security in Istanbul on 16 December 2013. He is also a former Kaymakam (sub-governor). A member of the

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 ...

, he was elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in the 2023 parliamentary election from Erzurum.

Early life and career

Selami Altınok was born in 1966 in

Narman Narman ( hy, Նամուրվան; ka, ნარიმანი), formerly Namervan and İd, is a town and district of Erzurum Province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ...

, Erzurum and graduated from Department of Public Administration in

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 ...

Faculty of Political Sciences in 1988. He was later appointed as the Deputy Kaymakam to the district of Akkışla and went on to become the Kaymakam of Almus, Güroymak, Erciş, Terme and Serik. After serving as a Kaymakam, he became the General Secretary of the Erzurum Special Provincial Administration.

Governor of Aksaray

Altınok was appointed as the

Governor of Aksaray by the Ministry of the Interior, with his appointment being validated by the Turkish government and the President Abdullah Gül on 2 August 2012. He served in this position until 16 February 2014, after which he was appointed as a Central Governor with no responsibility.

Istanbul General Director of Security

Following a series of police raids on the homes of numerous businessmen and the sons of four cabinet ministers as part of a government corruption scandal, the serving Istanbul General Director of Security who had ordered the operations,

Hüseyin Çapkın Hüseyin Çapkın (born 1951), is a Turkish civil servant. He was lately the police chief of Istanbul Province. Early life He was born 1951 at Akyurt village of Tire district in İzmir Province to a farmer's family. After completing his prima ...

, was removed from his post. In his government's defence, Prime Minister

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 ...

had accused the perpetrators of the anti-corruption operation to be sympathisers of the Gülen Movement and would be removed from their positions. After the controversial removal of Çapkın from office, Altınok was appointed as the new General Director of Security for Istanbul.

Tape recording scandal

While serving as the Istanbul General Director of Security, a recording of a phone call between Altınok and the then-Undersecretary to the Interior Ministry (later Interior Minister) Efkan Ala was leaked on the Internet, allegedly by the Gülen Movement. In the alleged phone call, Altınok could be heard saying that 'they would violently crush the heads of any dissident'. The released recordings, which targeted numerous government ministers and supporters, were dismissed as fakes by the then-Prime Minister

Minister of the Interior

After the June 2015 general election resulted in a hung parliament, unsuccessful coalition negotiations raised speculation over whether President

would call an early election in the event that AKP leader Ahmet Davutoğlu was unable to form a government within the given constitutional time of 45 days. As required by the 114th article of the

Constitution of Turkey 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 ...

, the calling of a snap general election by the President necessitates the forming of an interim election government, in which all parties represented in Parliament are given a certain number of ministers according to how many MPs they have. If a party refused to send ministers to the interim cabinet, then independents must take their place. When going into an election, the Constitution requires that the partisan ministers responsible for

the Interior , settlement_type = Region of British Columbia , image_skyline = , nickname = "The Interior" , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivi ...

, for Justice and for Transport to resign from their positions and to be replaced by independent civil servants three months before polling day. As a result, the Interior Ministry was already administered by the independent former Undersecretary,

Sebahattin Öztürk Sebahattin Öztürk (born 1 July 1962) is a Turkish politician, civil servant and bureaucrat who served as the Minister of the Interior of Turkey between March and August 2015. Previously the Undersecretary to the Interior Ministry since 2014, h ...

, since 7 March 2015. When the interim cabinet was announced, Altınok was announced as the new independent Minister of the Interior on 28 August 2015. He is known for being close to the former AKP Interior Minister

Efkan Âlâ Efkan Ala (born 21 February 1965) is a Turkish people, Turkish politician and former civil servant who served as the Ministry of the Interior (Turkey), Minister of the Interior from November 2015 to August 2016;. He previously held the same post ...

, who resigned as required by the Constitution on 7 March 2015.

References

External links

Collection of all relevant news items at Haberler.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Altinok, Selami 1966 births Living people People from Narman Members of the 63rd government of Turkey Turkish civil servants Governors of Aksaray Ministers of the Interior of Turkey Istanbul University alumni Members of the 28th Parliament of Turkey Justice and Development Party (Turkey) politicians People from Erzurum Province