Sümeyye Erdoğan Bayraktar (born 22 August 1985) is a Turkish
businesswoman
A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the ...
and
activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
. She is also the daughter of
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 ...
. In 2013, she was one of the chief advisors of her father who was prime minister at the time.
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Early life and education
Her father is 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 ...
and her mother is Emine Erdoğan
Emine Erdoğan (; ; born 16 February 1955) is the current first lady of Turkey, and the wife of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Family and education Early life
Emine Erdoğa, was born as Cemal and Hayriye Gülbaran’s fifth child and only daug ...
. She has three siblings: Ahmet Burak, Necmettin Bilal and Esra
Esra is a common Turkish given name for females. It is also a common Arabic name. People named Esra include:
Given name
* Esra Battaloğlu, Turkish geneticist
* Esra Bilgiç (born 1992), Turkish actress
* Esra Dalfidan (born 1975), Turkish s ...
. In March 2016, she became engaged to Selçuk Bayraktar
Selçuk Bayraktar (born 7 October 1979) is a Turkish engineer and businessman. He is the chairman of the board and the chief technology officer of the Turkish technology company Baykar. He is also known as the architect of Turkey's first indi ...
, and married him on 14 May 2016.
She graduated from Araklı İmam Hatip High School in 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 ...
. After not getting her desired grade in the university entrance exams in 2002, she continued her education in the United States. With a scholarship from a businessman, she received a bachelor's degree in sociology and politics from Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...
. After completing her education in 2005, she completed her master's degree in economics at the London School of Economics
, mottoeng = To understand the causes of things
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £240.8 million (2021)
, budget = £391.1 millio ...
.
Career
In 2010, she became a partner at Doruk Izgara Food Trade Limited Company. Her brother Bilal Erdoğan was reported to be among the company's partners.
Politics
In 2010, she started to work as a consultant in 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 ...
(AKP), responsible for monitoring foreign relations and their reflections on the world press. Due to this position, she has been a part of many international trips. She was a counselor to her father during four years, a role she decided not to carry on in October 2014. During the Gezi Park protests
A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at the violent eviction of a sit-in at the park prot ...
in 2013, she was involved in meetings between the government and various artists. Her participation in the meetings was questioned and moved to the agenda of the TBMM
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives ...
for further discussion.
Controversies
It was claimed that a website which published her photographs while she was staying in the USA was closed down. An unnamed official from the Hugehost company said that after a phone call from Ankara they were left disturbed and could not provide service anymore.
Sümeyye Bayraktar, who was among the audience of ''Genç Osman'' at the Ankara State Theater, left the hall during the play saying that the movements carried out in accordance with the scenario were intended to insult her. As a result of the investigation, it was concluded that the actors did not have any negative behavior and the usual scenario was played out on stage.
In the period following the 2013 December 17 corruption scandal, voice recordings of Sümeyye Bayraktar, who was setting the agenda for instructing AKP trolls
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...
on Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
to tweet in favor of them on social media, were published. Again, based on the sound recordings released during this period, it was revealed that together with her brother Bilal Erdoğan, she transferred money from their homes to different places on their father's instructions and met with Mustafa Latif Topbaş about the villas built in the archaeological site in Urla and pursued business.
It was claimed that Sümeyye Bayraktar had reached an agreement with a company to remove news published on the Internet about her private life in the past. OdaTV later reported that they had been contacted by a company, who claimed to be in charge of taking care of "Sümeyye Erdoğan's reputation on online services" and asked them to delete an article that they had published about her two years ago.
Personal life
Erdoğan is married to Selçuk Bayraktar
Selçuk Bayraktar (born 7 October 1979) is a Turkish engineer and businessman. He is the chairman of the board and the chief technology officer of the Turkish technology company Baykar. He is also known as the architect of Turkey's first indi ...
and has one child.
Notes
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Erdoğan, Sümeyye
Living people
1985 births
Sumeyye
Turkish Muslims
Turkish Sunni Muslims
20th-century Muslims
21st-century Muslims
Indiana University alumni