Binali Yıldırım

Binali Yıldırım (; born 20 December 1955) is a Turkish politician who served as the 27th and last prime minister of Turkey from 2016 to 2018 and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly from 2018 to 2019. He was Leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) from 2016 to 2017, then becoming parliamentary leader until 2018.

Yıldırım served as chairman of the board of Directors of Istanbul Fast Ferries Company (İDO) from 1994 to 2000 before being elected as an AKP Member of Parliament for Istanbul's first electoral district during the 2002 general election. He was appointed as Minister of Transport by Prime Minister Abdullah Gül and continued in office after Erdoğan became prime minister in 2003. As Transport Minister, he presided over numerous projects such as Marmaray, high-speed rail lines and an expansion in the country's airport and road facilities, though received heavy criticism and calls for his resignation following the Pamukova train derailment in 2004. In 2011, the portfolios of Maritime and Communications were merged with the Ministry of Transport, with Yıldırım becoming the Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication.

Leaving office in a cabinet reshuffle in 2013, Yıldırım ran as the AKP candidate for Mayor of İzmir in the 2014 local elections but lost to the incumbent Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate Aziz Kocaoğlu. He was appointed as special advisor to Erdoğan in June 2014 and left Parliament in the June 2015 general election due to the AKP's three-term rule for its sitting MPs. He was re-appointed as Transport Minister by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu after being reelected to Parliament in the November 2015 general election. Following Davutoğlu's resignation as party leader due to a breakdown in relations with President Erdoğan on 5 May 2016, Yıldırım was announced as the AKP's next leader by the Central Executive Committee on 19 May and was elected unopposed during the party's 2nd Extraordinary Congress on 22 May 2016. He formed the country's 65th government and became prime minister on 24 May 2016. Factions of the Turkish Army in discontent with his policies attempted to oust him in a failed military coup d'état attempt on 15 July 2016.

As a staunch supporter of Erdoğan, Yıldırım was referred to as a 'low-profile' Prime Minister and expected to spearhead a transition from a parliamentary system of government to an executive presidency, which would delegate greater powers to Erdoğan and the presidency. Following the declared victory of the 'Yes' vote in the 2017 constitutional referendum despite electoral irregularities, Yıldırım resigned as AKP Leader in place of Erdoğan, who was elected as his successor during the 3rd AKP extraordinary Congress on 21 May 2017. Yıldırım was subsequently elected as the AKP's parliamentary leader by 300 votes on 24 May. The office of Prime Minister of Turkey was abolished as a result of the 2017 constitutional referendum.

In 2013, Yıldırım was implicated in a government corruption scandal, with the financial and social activities of his family members also coming under scrutiny. He has caused controversy over his defence of greater government surveillance and comments favouring sex segregation. He was the AKP nominee for Mayor of Istanbul in both the March 2019 and June 2019 Istanbul mayoral elections (the latter of which occurred after the Supreme Election Council annulled the March election), losing both to CHP nominee Ekrem İmamoğlu, to whom he conceded defeat and congratulated following the June 2019 election.

Early life and career

Binali Yıldırım was born in Refahiye, Erzincan Province, on 20 December 1955. His name, Binali, means son of Ali in Arabic (بن علي). An Alevi neighbour of his family gave him the name. His surname, ''Yıldırım'', means "lightning bolt" and has often been attributed by the pro-government press to embody the rapid growth of transport infrastructure during his tenure as Minister of Transport.

Binali Yıldırım's origins have been frequently questioned due to contradictory claims by himself, his family, and other people. At a political rally in Hakkari and Van, while asking Kurds to vote for his party, he mentioned that his origins are Kurdish; however, his cousin stated that their family is not Kurdish. Many see Binali Yıldırım's claim of having Kurdish ancestry as an attempt to gain the support of Kurdish voters. Yıldırım also claimed that he is from Şanlıurfa while addressing citizens from Şanlıurfa, although it is known that he is from Erzincan. As a result, many authors started theorizing about his origins. Macit Gürbüz, a Turkish author, claims that his family migrated to Urfa from Raqqa and then to Ağrı. Afterwards, the family ended up in a village in Gümüşhane. Likewise, some people from Ağrı assume Binali Yıldırım as a fellow Kurd from Ağrı, while people from Erzincan claim him to be a Turk.

Education

Yıldırım was educated at the Istanbul Technical University's School of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, studying Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and later received his master's degree from the same department. While serving in numerous managerial positions in the General Directorate of the Turkish Shipping Industry and the Camialtı Shipyard, he received specialised training regarding Maritime Safety and Environmental Protection from the International Maritime Organisation's World Maritime University in Sweden. While at the World Maritime University, he spent six months working with maritime administration professionals at Scandinavian and European ports.

Istanbul Fast Ferries Director, 1994–2000

After graduation, Yıldırım served as the director general of the Istanbul Fast Ferries Company (İDO) from 1994 to 2000 while Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was Mayor of Istanbul. In attempts to make greater use of sea travel to ease transport congestion in Istanbul, Yıldırım established the Istanbul-Yalova ferry routes and oversaw the establishment of 29 ferry terminals, the commission of 22 passenger and 4 car ferries, making İDO the largest commercial maritime transportation company of its time. In 1999, he was awarded a quality medal by the Skål International group for his contributions to the modernisation of the maritime transportation and tourism industries. He was removed from office by Erdoğan's successor, Mayor Ali Müfit Gürtuna, following allegations of misconduct, having been accused of hiring out buffets to a firm run by members of his close family.

Early political career

As the Director of İDO, Yıldırım established a close relationship to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who served as Istanbul's Mayor from 1994 to 1998. When the latter led efforts to establish a new moderate conservative democratic political party in August 2001, Yıldırım joined Erdoğan to become a founding member of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). He was subsequently fielded as a parliamentary candidate for Istanbul's first electoral district in the 2002 general election and was elected following the party's landslide victory.

Member of Parliament

Elected as a Member of Parliament for Istanbul's first electoral district in the 2002 general election, he was re-elected as an MP in the 2007 general election as a candidate from his home province of Erzincan. In 2006, he stated that his name was of Alevi origin and that he would work hard for the AKP to field Alevi candidates in the upcoming election, in response to criticism that the party was discriminating against the Alevi minority in Turkey due to its Sunni Islam political origin.

In the 2011 general election, Yıldırım was elected for a third consecutive time from İzmir's second electoral district. Due to the AKP's three-term limit on its MPs, Yıldırım was unable to seek re-election for a fourth time in the June 2015 general election. However, he re-entered Parliament from İzmir's first electoral district during the November 2015 snap general election seven months later.

On February 18, 2019, the speaker of the Turkish Parliament Binali Yildirim announced that he would resign due to the fact that he would run for mayor of Istanbul in the local elections to be held in Turkey on March 31, 2019.

Minister of Transport, Maritime, and Communication

Binali Yıldırım has been referred to as the AKP's 'unchanging Transport Minister' due to his almost uninterrupted 11-year term in office. The only other non-independent AKP politician to hold the post before Yıldırım became prime minister was Lütfi Elvan, who succeeded Yıldırım in 2013 and served until 2015.

Yıldırım served as the Minister of Transport between November 2002 and November 2011, leaving office three months before the 2007 general election and the 2011 general election in accordance to Article 114 of the Turkish constitution, which requires the vacation of the partisan Minister of Transport and his or her replacement by an independent minister three months before the end of a parliamentary term. In November 2011, the portfolios of maritime and communications were merged with the Transport Ministry, with Yıldırım becoming the first Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication. He left office during a cabinet reshuffle in 2013, but was reinstated as Minister by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on 24 November 2015.

On his personal website, Yıldırım has claimed that 17,500 kilometers of new motorways, 29 new airports and 1,213 kilometers of high-speed railway were constructed during his term as Minister.

Rail network expansion

In 2003, the government launched Turkey's first high-speed rail project, the ''Hızlandırılmış tren'' ("Fast train"). On 4 January 2004, Yıldırım oversaw the launch of construction works on the first branch between Ankara and Eskişehir, that was eventually inaugurated in 2009 with total costs of ₺7.5 million to upgrade the tracks, rolling stock and increase the speed of trains on the route to . At the same time, work was completed to increase the average train speeds to throughout Turkey. In 2014, the line, operated by a subsidiary of the Turkish State Railways (TCDD), was extended to Istanbul, completing the Ankara–Istanbul high-speed railway. Construction on the Ankara–Konya high-speed railway began in 2006 and was completed in 2011.

Under the strategic aims published by the Transport Ministry while Yıldırım was in office, the government planned over of high speed lines by the year 2023, as part of the AKP's ' 2023 vision' for the centenary of the Turkish Republic. The 'fast train' services were however met with criticism that the government had refused to listen to scientific concerns, with the project coming under heavy fire following the 2004 Pamukova train derailment despite Yıldırım's insistence that it would not be scrapped.

In addition to national rail infrastructure, several suburban and inner-city rail and metro systems were inaugurated by Yıldırım. These included the Istanbul Kabataş–Taksim funicular in 2006, both the İzmir commuter rail (İZBAN) and the Adana Metro in May 2010, the Istanbul Metro lines M3 in 2013, M4 in 2012 and M6 in 2015 and the Ankara Metro lines M3 and M4 in 2014. In 2013, the first phase of the Marmaray project, which links the continents of Europe and Asia via a tunnel under the Bosphorus in Istanbul was opened, due to link and take over the entirety of the Istanbul suburban rail services by 2018. Yıldırım also presided over extensions to the İzmir Metro and Istanbul Metro line M2, which was extended from Şişhane to Yenikapı via the Golden Horn Metro Bridge in 2014.

Aviation expansion

Yıldırım presided over a new Transport Ministry initiative to vastly upgrade airports that were regarded to be in 'discarded condition'. Under the new scheme, numerous airports were closed for refurbishment. Following improvement work, the Tokat, Kahramanmaraş, Sivas, Gaziantep and Çanakkale