Mehmet Zafer Çağlayan (born 10 November 1957 in

Muş Muş (; ; ) is a city in eastern Turkey. It is the seat of Muş Province and Muş District.İl Beled ...

) is a Turkish politician and former Minister. He is a member of parliament from the ruling

Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being: * Justice and Development Party (Morocco) * Justice and Development Party (Turkey) Justice and Development Party may also refer to: * Justice and Dev ...

and the former Minister of Economic Affairs under Prime Minister

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 ...

Biography

Born to a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

family, Çağlayan graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from

Gazi University Gazi University () is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Ankara, Turkey. It was founded in 1926 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk originally as the Gazi Education Institute (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Gazi Eğitim Ens ...

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

in 1980 and went on to a career in the aluminum industry. Before his election to parliament and appointment as minister in August 2007 he was president of the Ankara Chamber of Industry and vice-president of the

Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey () is a confederation of all local chambers of commerce, industry and maritime as well as commodity exchanges in Turkey. Overview The union was founded on March 8, 1950, as an umbrella o ...

, who have been lobbying for structural and micro-economic reforms. He was the chairman of two companies namely Akel Alüminyum A.Ş and Çağlayanlar Alüminyum Limited. Çağlayan is married and has two children.

2013 corruption scandal

On 17 December 2013, his son Salih Kaan Çağlayan was arrested for involvement in the 2013 corruption scandal. Zafer Çağlayan and two other ministers, namely Minister of the Interior

Muammer Güler Muammer Güler (born 21 March 1949) is a Turkish Mhallami politician. He is a member of parliament from the Justice and Development Party (AKP). He was formerly the Governor of Istanbul Province and the Minister of the Interior under Prime M ...

and Minister of Environment and Urban Planning

Erdoğan Bayraktar Erdoğan Bayraktar (born 10 October 1948 in Trabzon, Turkey) is a Turkish politician. He is the former Minister of Environment and Urban Planning of Turkey under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government and member of parliament for Tra ...

, resigned on 25 December 2013, although Çağlayan and Güler remained as MPs. Former ministers deny the accusations. On 28 February 2014, Salih Kaan Caglayan has been released with two other people. The Istanbul prosecutor has decided not to proceed against the 53 accused in the December 17 corruption probe, the Public Prosecutor's Office announced on 17 October 2014. On 5 January 2015, A Turkish parliamentary committee has cleared four former ministers of corruption charges. The charges were cancelled. The investigation followed controversial police probes into the allegations, which the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described as a coup attempt by police. On Wednesday, 21 January 2015, the Turkish parliament voted not to send to trial four former ministers accused of wrongdoing in a corruption investigation.

Anti-semitic remarks

On 8 March 2014, during a public rally for his

, Çağlayan spoke to the crowds. On the topic of the corruption scandal, he accused the instigators of the investigation of seeking to undermine the government and said:

...I would understand if a Jew, an atheist, a Zoroastrian would do all these things to us. Shame on them if these things are done by those who claim to be Muslim. How can a Muslim do this?

Çağlayan's remarks sparked further controversy in Turkey, with the Turkish Jewish Congregation () issuing a statement expressing its "discontent" with the remarks.

Public Statement and Apology

Mr. Caglayan has also made another statement soon after that by stating that,

... I never wanted to offend Jewish people or Jewish belief in the first place ...

and he said that he does respect all other religions and beliefs like his own and he deeply regrets if his remarks came across as an Insult.

References

External links