İsmet Yılmaz (born 10 December 1961) is a Turkish politician who was a member of the Grand National Assembly from 2011 to 2023. Previously he was Minister of National Defense and Minister of National Education. Yılmaz also briefly served as the

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 ...

. Prior to entering politics, he worked as a law consultant and

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...

Early life and education

İsmet Yılmaz was born in Gürün, Sivas Province. Following his primary education in his hometown, he enrolled in Haydarpaşa High School in

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 ...

. Then, he studied mechanical engineering at the School of Maritime in Istanbul Technical University, graduating in 1982 with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

. Yılmaz attended then Istanbul University's Faculty of Law for education in maritime law and finished in 1987. He continued his further studies in "technical management in maritime" at the World Maritime University in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

earning a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

. He received another master's degree in law from the Institute of Social Sciences in Marmara University, Istanbul. Finally, İsmet Yılmaz received a Doctor of Law degree from the Institute of Social Sciences at

Ankara University Ankara University () is a public university, public research university in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in Turkey after the History of the Republic of Turkey, formation of the Turkish republ ...

Career

Government

After serving twenty years as an engineer and a law consultant, he became Undersecretary of Maritime Affairs at the Ministry of Transport and Communication on December 31, 2002. In accordance with Article 114 of the Constitution of Turkey, he was appointed neutral Minister of Transport and Communication on May 8, 2007, as placeholder for Binali Yıldırım until the 2007 general elections. Yılmaz was appointed Undersecretary at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on November 1, 2007. He entered politics as a member of the AK Party and became deputy for Sivas Province following the 2011 general elections. On July 6, 2011, Yılmaz was appointed Minister of National Defence in the Cabinet Erdoğan III. During his first term as Minister of Defense, he praised Turkey's affiliation to NATO and saw its membership as the result of values like democracy and human rights that Turkey was defending.

Speaker of Parliament

Yılmaz was put forward as the AKP's candidate for

for the June–July 2015 speaker elections. Since the AKP did not have a majority (276 seats) in Parliament, the election went into a fourth and final round where Yılmaz managed to win a simple majority of the vote on 1 July 2015. He was thus elected as the Speaker with 258 votes (exactly the same number of votes as AKP MPs) to rival Deniz Baykal's 182 votes.

Personal life

İsmet Yılmaz is married and has three children.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yilmaz, Ismet 1961 births People from Gürün Haydarpaşa High School alumni Istanbul Technical University alumni Istanbul University Faculty of Law alumni Turkish mechanical engineers Turkish jurists Marmara University alumni Ankara University alumni Deputies of Sivas Justice and Development Party (Turkey) politicians Ministers of transport and communications of Turkey Ministers of national defence of Turkey Government ministers of Turkey Speakers of the Parliament of Turkey Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 64th government of Turkey Members of the 65th government of Turkey Living people Members of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey