Mehmet Vecdi Gönül (; born 29 November 1939) is a Turkish politician who served as the

Minister of National Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

from 3 July to 17 November 2015. He previously served in the same position from 2002 to 2011 and was a

member of the 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 often ...

from 1999 to 2015.Biography
Turkish Ministry of Defence. Gönül first entered Parliament following the 1999 general election for Kocaeli from the Islamist

Virtue Party Virtue Party ( tr, Fazilet Partisi, FP) was an Islamist political party established on 17 December 1997 in Turkey. It was found unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court and then banned on 22 June 2001 for violating the secularist articles of ...

(FP). He joined 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) in 2011 when the FP was shut down and was re-elected as an AKP MP from Kocaeli in the 2002 general election. He became minister of national defence in the government of

Abdullah Gül Abdullah Gül (; ; born 29 October 1950) is a Turkish politician who served as the 11th President of Turkey, in office from 2007 to 2014. He previously served for four months as Prime Minister from 2002 to 2003, and concurrently served as both ...

and continued in his position when

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 ...

took over as prime minister in March 2003. He was re-elected as an MP, this time from İzmir's second electoral district, in the 2007 general election and again from Antalya in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. In Erdoğan's third cabinet, he was succeeded as national defense minister by

İsmet Yılmaz İsmet Yılmaz (born December 10, 1961) is a Turkish politician. Previously he was Minister of National Defense and Minister of National Education. Also briefly served as the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly. Prior to entering politics, h ...

. Due to the AKP's three term limit, Gönül stepped down from Parliament at the June 2015 general election. After serving national defense minister İsmet Yılmaz was

elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population ...

Speaker of the Grand National Assembly This article lists the speakers of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The name of the parliament of the Republic of Turkey, originally and currently the Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi) since its est ...

on 1 July 2015, Gönül was re-appointed as national defense minister by 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 ...

despite not being an MP and served in the post until 17 November 2015.

Biography

Gönül was born in

Erzincan Erzincan (; ku, Erzîngan), historically Yerznka ( hy, Երզնկա), is the capital of Erzincan Province in Eastern Turkey. Nearby cities include Erzurum, Sivas, Tunceli, Bingöl, Elazığ, Malatya, Gümüşhane, Bayburt, and Giresun. The city is ...

. His father, Saffet, was a teacher in military high schools. His mother's name was Lütfiye. He graduated in political science from

Ankara University Ankara University ( tr, Ankara Üniversitesi) is a public university in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in Turkey after the formation of the republic in 1923. The university has 40 vocat ...

in 1960 and returned to Erzincan as a civil servant. He completed a master's degree in Public Administration at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

and then returned to a career in public administration in Turkey, eventually becoming Chief of the Directorate of General Security (October 1977 - February 1978) and then governor of Kocaeli, Ankara (during the

1980 Turkish coup d'état The 1980 Turkish coup d'état ( tr, 12 Eylül Darbesi), headed by Chief of the General Staff General Kenan Evren, was the third coup d'état in the history of the Republic of Turkey, the previous having been the 1960 coup and the 1971 coup by ...

) and Istanbul provinces. In the mid-1980s he was governor of Izmir where he is remembered for a large project of road-building and the construction of

Adnan Menderes Airport Adnan ( ar, عدنان, 'adnān) is the traditional ancestor of the Adnanite Arabs of Northern, Western, Eastern and Central Arabia, as opposed to the Qahtanite Arabs of Southern Arabia who descend from Qahtan. His ancestry can be traced back t ...

. Gönül eventually became president of the Public Spending Authority (

Sayıştay The Court of Accounts ( tr, Sayıştay) is the supreme governmental accounting body of Turkey responsible of the comptrolling of the public accounts and the auditing of the accountancy of the political parties, in accordance with the Constituti ...

), the country's highest authority on public finance. Gönül was elected to the Turkish parliament for Kocaeli on 18 April 1999, and was part of the vanguard of the incumbent AKP. When Tayyip Erdoğan was barred from entering parliament, he became a candidate for party leadership, and later a candidate for the presidency. He became Minister of National Defence on 19 November 2002, serving in that post until 6 July 2011. Vecdi Gönül is married and has three children. He speaks English.Turkish Grand National Assembly bio (Turkish)
/ref>

Views on the Armenian genocide and population exchange with Greece

In 2008, Gönül stated: These statements were widely criticized in the Turkish press as they were interpreted as justifying the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

and other atrocities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonul, Vecdi Living people 1939 births Deputies of Kocaeli Ministers of National Defence of Turkey Justice and Development Party (Turkey) politicians Turkish civil servants Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences alumni People from Erzincan USC Sol Price School of Public Policy alumni Governors of Ankara İzmir Province Deputies of Izmir Deputies of Antalya Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 23rd Parliament of Turkey Members of the 22nd Parliament of Turkey Members of the 21st Parliament of Turkey Members of the 63rd government of Turkey Members of the 60th government of Turkey Deputy Speakers of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey