Ahmet Eşref Fakıbaba (born December 16, 1951,

Birecik Birecik is a municipality and district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 912 km2, and its population is 93,866 (2023). It lies on the Euphrates. Built on a limestone cliff 400 ft. high on the left/east bank of the Euphrates, " ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

) is a Turkish doctor and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

. He is the former mayor and deputy of

Şanlıurfa Urfa, officially called Şanlıurfa (), is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. The city was known as Edessa from Hellenistic times and into Christian times. Urfa is situated on a plain about east of the Eup ...

. He served as the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry between 2017 and 2018.

Political career

He was elected as the Mayor of

in the 2004 local elections as a candidate of the AK Party. Before the 2009 local elections, he was not nominated although he ranked first in his party's opinion poll. Fakıbaba resigned from the party in January 2009 after he was not nominated and announced that he would run as an independent candidate in the elections. The

Felicity Party The Felicity Party (, SAADET) is an Islamism, Islamist Turkey, Turkish political party. It was founded in 2001, and mainly supported by conservative Muslims in Turkey. It was founded on 20 July 2001 after the Virtue Party (Turkey), Virtue Party ...

gave open support to Fakıbaba's candidacy. In the elections held on March 29, 2009, Fakıbaba won 44 percent of the votes and was re-elected as the mayor of Şanlıurfa. The following year, he joined the Felicity Party. Şanlıurfa was elevated to "

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

" status at the end of 2012. He left the Felicity Party, citing

Numan Kurtulmuş Numan Kurtulmuş (born 15 September 1959) is a Turkish politician and academic who is currently the speaker of the Grand National Assembly. He served as Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey in the 62nd, 63rd, 64th and 65th AKP governments between ...

's departure from the party, and rejoined the AK Party on January 22, 2013. He did not run again in the 2014 local elections and resigned as Mayor of Şanlıurfa after ten years in office. He was elected as Şanlıurfa deputy from the AK Party in the June 2015 elections and again four months later. In the 2018 general elections, his party's vote dropped from 64 percent to 52 percent, but he managed to be re-elected as an MP. Between 2017 and 2018, he served as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. On October 20, 2022, he announced that he resigned from both his AK Party membership and his parliamentary seat. On October 26, 2022, he officially joined the IYI Party. In the

2023 Turkish general election General elections were held in Turkey on 14 May 2023, combining 2023 Turkish presidential election, presidential elections and 2023 Turkish parliamentary election, parliamentary elections to elect 600 members of the Grand National Assembly of Tu ...

s, IYI Party was elected as Ankara deputy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fakibaba, Ahmet Esref Ministers of agriculture and forestry of Turkey Atatürk University alumni 1951 births Living people Good Party politicians Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 27th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 28th Parliament of Turkey