Cemil Çiçek
Cemil Çiçek in January 2012
Speaker of the Parliament of Turkey
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 July 2011
President	Abdullah Gül
Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Preceded by	Mehmet Ali Şahin
Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
In office 28 August 2007 – 28 June 2011 Serving with Bülent Arınç and Ali Babacan
President	Abdullah Gül
Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Preceded by	Abdullah Gül
Succeeded by	Beşir Atalay
Minister of Justice
In office 20 November 2002 – 8 May 2007
President	Ahmet Necdet Sezer
Prime Minister	Abdullah Gül Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Preceded by	Aysel Çelikel
Succeeded by	Fahri Kasırga
Personal details
Born	November 1946 (age 65) Yozgat, Turkey
Nationality	Turkish
Political party	Justice and Development Party (AKP)
Other political affiliations	Motherland Party (ANAP)
Alma mater	Istanbul University
Occupation	Politician
Religion	Islam

Cemil Çiçek (pronounced [dʒemil tʃitʃec]; born 15 November 1946 in Yozgat) is a Turkish politician who is the current Speaker of the Parliament of Turkey since July 4, 2011. He served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey and Justice and Development Party Member of Parliament from Ankara. He was formerly Minister of Justice and government spokesman.

Early life[link]

He was born on 15 November 1946 in Yozgat, Turkey. He graduated from the Law Faculty of Istanbul University. In 1983, he joined the centre-right ANAP. He became an ANAP MP for Yozgat, and in the late 1980s Minister of State responsible for "the family". In this role he was known for his conservative views on matters of sex and marriage.

Political career[link]

He later became Minister for Energy and Natural Resources but was expelled from ANAP in 1997, upon which he joined the Islamic leaning Fazilet Party, which later evolved into the AK Party.

He was Minister of Justice in the first AK Party government (from 2003 to 2007), when as a former ANAP MP he was thought to be one of the leading figures of the AK Party, most acceptable to the Turkish military. During his ministry, he had to deal with situations including:

• the 2003 Istanbul bombings
• the release of former MP Leyla Zana from prison,
• the prosecutions of a number of police officers accused of torturing prisoners,
• an attempted suicide bombing of his ministry.

His legislation included stricter controls of prisons (in 2006).

Speaker of the Parliament[link]

Lawmaker Cemil Çiçek of the Justice & Development (AK) Party became the new parliament speaker of Turkey in the third round of vote on July 4, 2011. Çiçek received 302 votes in the first round voting, while Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) parliamentarian Tunca Toskay received 50 votes. The AK Party's second candidate, Zelkif Kazdal, received 23 votes and withdrew his nomination after the first round. Çiçek went on to win 322 votes and Tunca Toskay won 52 in the second round of voting. Çiçek was elected as the new speaker with 322 votes in the third round, in which Toskay received 50 votes. Three votes were declared invalid. In his speech after his election, Çiçek appealed to the opposition parties that were boycotting Parliament to take their oaths. "Parliament should be a place of work, not of conflict. We have many issues to solve. We can't afford to waste any time," Çiçek said.^[1]

Quotes[link]

• The mentality of the general public is the prime obstacle to rule of law (in Turkey). "Our public does not want justice, they just want their own affairs sorted out. They want to see corruption investigated but they are not ashamed to manage their own affairs corruptly. The public actually doesn't care about corruption. They say "let someone tackle it while we watch and see who wins" as if it were a football match. He then went to blame the professional bodies for not exposing corruption among their members. ^[2]
• The Islamic world will get nowhere by blaming all its problems on the outside world and making itself out to be a white spoon just pulled out of the milk^[3]
• (Upon the release from prison of Leyla Zana..)The Turkish courts have played their part. Now the EU has no excuse (not to begin entry negotiations with Turkey)

References[link]

v t e Cabinet of Prime Minister Abdullah Gül (2002–2003) Cabinet Deputy Prime Ministers Mehmet Ali Şahin • Abdüllatif Şener • Ertuğrul Yalçınbayır Minister of State Mehmet Aydın • Beşir Atalay • Ali Babacan • Kürşad Tüzmen Minister of Justice Cemil Çiçek Minister of National Defense Mehmet Vecdi Gönül Minister of the Interior Abdülkadir Aksu Minister of Foreign Affairs Yaşar Yakış Minister of Finance Kemal Unakıtan Minister of National Education Erkan Mumcu Minister of Public Works and Settlement Zeki Ergezen Minister of Health Recep Akdağ Minister of Transport and Communication Binali Yıldırım Minister of Agriculture Sami Güçlü Minister of Labour and Social Security Murat Başesgioğlu Minister of Industry and Commerce Ali Coşkun Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Mehmet Hilmi Güler Minister of Culture Hüseyin Çelik Minister of Tourism Güldal Akşit Minister of Environment İmdat Sütlüoğlu Minister of Forestry Osman Pepe

v t e First cabinet of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (2003–2007) Cabinet Deputy Prime Ministers Abdullah Gül (2003–2007) Mehmet Ali Şahin (2003–2007) Abdüllatif Şener (2003–2007) Minister of State Ali Babacan (2003–2007) Güldal Akşit (2003-2005) • Nimet Çubukçu (2005–2007) Mehmet Aydın (2003–2007) Kürşad Tüzmen (2003–2007) Beşir Atalay (2003–2007) Minister of Justice Cemil Çiçek (2003–2007) • Fahri Kasırga (2007) Minister of National Defense Mehmet Vecdi Gönül (2003–2007) Minister of the Interior Abdülkadir Aksu (2003–2007) • Osman Güneş (2007) Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Gül (2003–2007) Minister of Finance Kemal Unakıtan (2003–2007) Minister of National Education Hüseyin Çelik (2003–2007) Minister of Public Works and Settlement Zeki Ergezen (2003-2007) • Faruk Nafız Özak (2005–2007) Minister of Health Recep Akdağ (2003–2007) Minister of Transport and Communication Binali Yıldırım (2003–2007) • İsmet Yılmaz (2007) Minister of Agriculture Sami Güçlü (2003–2005) • Mehmet Mehdi Eker (2005–2007) Minister of Labour and Social Security Murat Başesgioğlu (2003–2007) Minister of Industry and Commerce Ali Coşkun (2003–2007) Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Mehmet Hilmi Güler (2003–2007) Minister of Culture and Tourism Erkan Mumcu (2003–2005) • Atilla Koç (2005–2007) Minister of Environment and Forestry Osman Pepe (2003–2007)

v t e Second cabinet of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (2007–2011) Cabinet Deputy Prime Ministers Cemil Çiçek (2007–2011) Hayati Yazıcı (2007–2009) • Bülent Arınç (2009–2011) Nazım Ekren (2007–2009) • Ali Babacan (2009–2011) Minister of State Mehmet Aydın (2007–2011) Kürşad Tüzmen (2007-2009) • Mehmet Zafer Çağlayan (2009–2011) Nimet Çubukçu (2007–2009) • Selma Aliye Kavaf (2009–2011) Cevdet Yılmaz (2009–2011) Mustafa Sait Yazıcıoğlu (2007–2009) • Faruk Çelik (2009–2011) Murat Başesgioğlu (2007–2009) • Faruk Nafız Özak (2009–2011) Egemen Bağış (2009–2011) Hayati Yazıcı (2009–2011) Minister of Justice Mehmet Ali Şahin (2007–2009) • Sadullah Ergin (2009–2011) Minister of National Defense Mehmet Vecdi Gönül (2007–2011) Minister of the Interior Beşir Atalay (2007–2011) Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Babacan (2007–2009) • Ahmet Davutoğlu (since 2009–2011) Minister of Finance Kemal Unakıtan (2007–2009) • Mehmet Şimşek (2009–2011) Minister of National Education Hüseyin Çelik (2007–2009) • Nimet Çubukçu (2009–2011) Minister of Public Works and Settlement Faruk Nafız Özak (2007-2009) • Mustafa Demir (2009–2011) Minister of Health Recep Akdağ (2007–2011) Minister of Transport and Communication Binali Yıldırım (2007–2011) Minister of Agriculture Mehmet Mehdi Eker (2007–2011) Minister of Labour and Social Security Faruk Çelik (2007–2009) • Ömer Dinçer (2009–2011) Minister of Industry and Commerce Mehmet Zafer Çağlayan (2007–2009) • Nihat Ergün (2009–2011) Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Mehmet Hilmi Güler (2007–2009) • Taner Yıldız (2009–2011) Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertuğrul Günay (2007–2011) Minister of Environment and Forestry Veysel Eroğlu (2007–2011)