Akif Çağatay Kılıç

Çağatay Kılıç

Akif Çağatay Kılıç (born June 15, 1976 in Siegen ) is a Turkish politician ( AKP ).

Life and political career

Çağatay Kılıç was born in Germany as the son of a doctor and lived there until he was 10 years old. He attended a primary school in Weidenau . In Istanbul he continued his education at the Işık-Gymnasium and the German School . After graduating from high school, he studied Politics and European Studies at the State University of Hertfordshire north of London and then worked for the Turkish Sabancı Holding in London.

Çağatay Kılıç began a political career shortly afterwards. He worked as a political advisor and soon belonged to the close circle around the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , whom he often accompanied on trips abroad.

As a member of the AKP , he has been a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey since 2011 and represents the constituency of Samsun . He sits on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. From December 25, 2013 to July 19, 2017, Suat Kılıç's successor was Minister for Sport and Youth in Turkey, also in the cabinet of Ahmet Davutoğlu .

Çağatay Kılıç comes from a political family. His uncle was General Secretary of the National Security Council of Turkey from 2010 to 2012 , and his grandfather was a member of the CHP in the National Assembly from 1961 to 1980 .

Çağatay Kılıç is married.

controversy

After an interview with Kılıç conducted by Michel Friedman on September 5, 2016 on behalf of Deutsche Welle (DW), employees of the Turkish Ministry of Youth and Sports confiscated the interview material, according to DW staff, stating that if it was not released, it would be leaving of the building is not possible. DW director Peter Limbourg criticized this as a “blatant violation of the freedom of the press”. He explained: “What we are experiencing here fulfills the requirements of coercion by the Turkish leadership. It has nothing to do with the rule of law and democracy. "It could not be that a minister willingly gives an interview and then wants to prevent it from being broadcast," because the questions did not suit him. "Deutsche Welle urged the Turkish authorities to do so immediately Publication of the video material. She is also examining possible legal steps. The German Association of Journalists (DJV) asked the Turkish authorities to immediately surrender the seized material. The DJV federal chairman Frank Überall said: "This is the worst possible attack on the freedom of the press, as we only know it from dictatorships." He demanded that the Foreign Office should intervene.

Kılıç denied that the interview was confiscated, stating that such reports were incorrect. They only asked not to broadcast the interview. Deutsche Welle has to comply with this request for authorization. DW spokesman Christoph Jumpelt disagreed with Kılıç and said: "The DW team did not hand over the material to the representatives of the Turkish Ministry of their own free will." He said: Rather, this was done under “unmistakable pressure” and described Kılıç's claim as “simply adventurous”. "If the video material had not been unlawfully confiscated, DW would still have the material and could broadcast the program as planned," said Jumpelt, explaining: "There was never any question of accepting the interview before or during the recording. This supposed obligation is a free invention of the Turkish Minister for Youth and Sport. "

The spokesman for the German federal government , Steffen Seibert , said regarding the incident that the freedom of the press is non-negotiable. The German ambassador to Turkey, Martin Erdmann , spoke to Kılıç's office manager in Ankara. He made it clear that freedom of the press is very important to the German government and the German media. At the same time, the federal government would like "freedom of the press to be applied in Turkey as well."

Honors

• 2011: Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany

Web links

Commons : Akif Çağatay Kılıç  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Biography as a member of the Turkish National Assembly

Individual evidence

1. ^ "A native of Siegen became a minister in Turkey", Siegener Zeitung of January 4, 2014
2. ↑ ^{a b} scandal: Deutsche Welle contradicts Turkish minister . Welt Online, September 7, 2016.
3. ^ Dispute between Deutscher Welle and Turkey - Federal Government: "Freedom of the press is not negotiable" . Deutschlandfunk, September 7, 2016.