Murat Karayalçın

Murat Karayalçın

Murat Karayalçın (* 1943 in Samsun ) is a Turkish politician.

At the age of seven he had to leave his parents because the climate on the Black Sea was not good for him. He went to Ankara to see his aunt. There he attended Mimar Kemal Elementary School, Middle School and Gazi High School . In 1964 he began studying economics and finance at the Faculty of Political Science ( Mülkiye ) at Ankara University . He finished his studies in 1968. In England he wrote his bachelor thesis on economics on a UN grant. He then worked in the State Planning Office (DPT). Between 1978 and 1979 he worked as a senior official in the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture. Karayalçın was a co-founder of the Kent-Koop cooperation . There he was first responsible for finances, then rose to general secretary and was chairman from 1981 to 1991. Karayalçın was a member of the board of the International Co-operative Housing Organization (ICHO) from 1986 to 1987. From 1988 to 1993 he was chairman of the TÜRKKENT (Türkiye Kent Kooperatifi) cooperation. In order to relieve the city of Ankara, he started a satellite city project under the name Batıkent (West City ). In 1986 he was awarded a prize in England and in the same year the Turkish magazine Nokta voted him businessman of the year. Because he made Turkey known abroad from 1987 to 1991, he received the TÜTAV Foundation Prize. In 1993 he was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government .

On March 26, 1989, he was elected mayor of Ankara as a candidate for the social democrat Halkçı Parti (SHP) and remained in office until September 1993. Karayalçın was elected at the 4th Congress of the SHP on September 11, 1993 as the successor of Erdal İnönü as chairman of the party. In the 50th Turkish government, he was Deputy Prime Minister, State Minister and Foreign Minister from 1993 to 1994. After the merger of the SHP with Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (short CHP) in 1995, he resigned from the office of party chairman. In the 20th legislative period of the Turkish parliament he was a member.

On April 18, 1999 , he was the CHP candidate for the election of the mayor of Ankara, but was defeated by the AKP candidate Melih Gökçek . In June 1999 he stood for election of the chairman at the CHP congress. He later left the CHP and wanted to found a new left party together with Fikri Sağlar through alliances with left groups. In May 2002 the social democrat Halk Partisi (SHP for short) was founded. In December 2008 he resigned from the SHP in order to run again for the mayor's office of Ankara in the local elections on March 29, 2009 as a CHP candidate. He had to admit defeat to Melih Gökçek again.

Karayalçın has been married since 1969 and has one son.

Web links and sources

• Hürriyet
• Pd report with Murat Karayalçın (Turkish)