İsmail Kahraman (born 7 December 1940) is a Turkish politician from the

AK Party The Justice and Development Party ( , AK PARTİ), abbreviated officially as AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democratic. It has been the ruling party of Turkey since 2002. Third-party sources ...

who served as the 27th

Speaker of the Grand National Assembly This article lists the speakers of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The name of the parliament of Turkey, originally and currently the Grand National Assembly of Turkey () since its establishment on 23 April 1920, has for short periods be ...

from 22 November 2015 to 9 July 2018. He has been the Member of Parliament for Istanbul's first electoral district since 1 November 2015, having previously served as an MP for

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

between 1995 and 2002. He also served as

Minister of Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organiza ...

from 1996 to 1997 in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

Necmettin Erbakan Necmettin Erbakan (29 October 1926 – 27 February 2011) was a Turkish politician and political theorist who served as the 23rd prime minister of Turkey from 1996 to 1997. He was pressured by the military to step down as prime minister and was la ...

as a member of the Islamist Welfare Party.

Early life and career

İsmail Kahraman was born in İkizdere in 1940 and graduated 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. During his youth, he was the president of the Student's Community and of the National Turkish Students' Union. He was a founding member and a chairman of the board of trustees of the Unity Foundation and the Voluntary Foundation of Turkey. In the private sector, he worked as the chairman of the board of directors of numerous companies and became the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour. He was one of the founding members of the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University development foundation and is still the chairman of the board of trustees.

Political career

Minister of Culture

İsmail Kahraman was first elected as a Member of Parliament for

in the 1995 general election as a member of the Welfare Party. The Welfare Party leader

formed a

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

with the True Path Party in June 1996, with Kahraman becoming the

. The government fell in June 1997 after the military memorandum on 28 February. He was re-elected as an MP in the 1999 general election as part of the RP's successor Virtue Party (FP), but lost his seat in the 2002 general election.

Speaker of the Grand National Assembly

Kahraman re-entered politics and was elected as a Member of Parliament for Istanbul's first electoral district from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the November 2015 general election. He was subsequently announced as the AKP's candidate for

in the November 2015 Parliamentary Speaker election. He was elected speaker in the third round, winning 316 votes and becoming the 27th Speaker of the Grand National Assembly.

Political views

On 13 February 2015, Kahraman attended a career's day at a girls' school in Rize. In his speech, he argued that students should avoid turning to fashion and instead be faithful and devout. He argued that students should follow the example of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's mother, Tenzile Erdoğan. As Speaker of Parliament, one of Kahraman's duties is to pen the new draft constitution for Turkey, which since the founding of the republic after the collapse of Islamic

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

has been based on the ideas of

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

—Turkish nationalism and Western-style secularism, or separation of the state and religion. On 25 April 2016, Kahraman told a conference of Islamic scholars and writers in Istanbul that "

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

would not have a place in a new constitution," as Turkey was "a Muslim country and so we should have a religious constitution". His call was met with "opposition condemnation and a brief street protest" dispersed with tear gas by riot police. Kahraman later stated these were "personal views" and that the new constitution "should guarantee religious freedoms".

Personal life

He is married and has four children.

References

External links

MP profile on the Grand National Assembly website
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Kahraman, Ismail 1940 births People from İkizdere Deputies of Rize Istanbul University alumni Istanbul University Faculty of Law alumni Members of the 20th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 21st Parliament of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey Justice and Development Party (Turkey) politicians Welfare Party politicians Virtue Party politicians Ministers of culture of Turkey Turkish Islamists Turkish anti-communists Deputies of Istanbul Living people Speakers of the Parliament of Turkey Recipients of Hilal-i-Pakistan