Akif Çağatay Kılıç (born 15 June 1976) is a Turkish educator, politician, a former MP for

Samsun Province Samsun Province () is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey on the Black Sea coast. Its area is 9,725 km2, and its population is 1,368,488 (2022). Its adjacent provinces are Sinop on the northwest, Çorum on the west, Amasy ...

of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and the former Minister of Youth and Sports of Turkey. He is the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

's Foreign Policy and Security Chief Advisor.

Early life

Akif Çağatay Kılıç was born on 15 June 1976 to Sinan Kılıç and Behire Yıldız in

Siegen Siegen () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg (region), Arnsberg region. The university town (n ...

, North Rhine-Westphalia,

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. His grandfather İlyas Kılıç was a politician of the

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party (RPP; , CHP ) is a Kemalism, Kemalist and Social democracy, social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal ...

(CHP), who served five consecutive times as MP between 1961 and 1980. His father Sinan Kılıç served as a private physician of

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

during his office time as the

Mayor of Istanbul The mayor of Istanbul is the head of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. The mayor is elected popularly every five years. Nuri Aslan has served as interim mayor of Istanbul since 26 March 2025. This article covers the Ottoman Empire to the ...

in the 1990s. He studied Political Science at University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. He attended further studies related to Economy of Europe. Çağatay Kılıç is married to Eda Kılıç, and they have two daughters, Ela and Ece.

Career

Profession

He worked in the purchasing department of Sabancı Holding's Universal Trading Company in the UK. After returning to Turkey, he was appointed advisor in the headquarters of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2003. Later, Çağatay Kılıç served as advisor and assistant principal clerk of Prime Minister

Politics

Kılıç entered active politics running for a seat in the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...

in the 2011 general election, and was elected as an MP of

from the AKP. He was appointed a member of the Turkish group at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. On 26 December 2013, Çağatay Kılıç assumed office as the Minister of Youth and Sports, succeeding Suat Kılıç during Erdoğan's cabinet reshuffle with ten new names that was announced the day before, on 25 December, following the

2013 corruption scandal in Turkey The 2013 corruption scandal in Turkey or 17–25 December Corruption and Bribery Operation was a criminal investigation that involved several key people in the Turkish government. All of the 52 people detained on 17 December were connected in v ...

. At the age of 37, he became the youngest member of the cabinet. In September 2016, Kılıç was involved in controversy when after an interview with

Michel Friedman Julien Michel Friedman (; born 25 February 1956) is a German author, former Christian Democratic Union (Germany), CDU politician and talk show host. From 2000 to 2003 Friedman was vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and pres ...

DW-TV DW-TV () is a German multilingual TV news network of Deutsche Welle. Focussing on news and informational programming, it first started broadcasting 1 April 1992. DW broadcasts on satellite and is uplinked from Berlin. DW's English broadcast ...

's "Conflict Zone", the Turkish government seized the recording. In September 2016, Deutsche Welle filed a lawsuit against Turkish Sports Ministry over the seized interview.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilic, Akif Cagatay 1976 births People from Siegen Deutsche Schule Istanbul alumni Alumni of the University of Hertfordshire Turkish expatriates in the United Kingdom Justice and Development Party (Turkey) politicians Deputies of Samsun Ministers of youth and sports of Turkey Living people Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 65th government of Turkey Members of the 64th government of Turkey Members of the 63rd government of Turkey Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany