Hüsamettin Özkan

Hüsamettin Özkan (born June 20, 1950 in Develi , Kayseri Province ) is a Turkish politician.

Life

Özkan was the youngest child in a family with seven children. Özkan attended school in Istanbul. He studied business administration in Istanbul and then worked in the construction industry. At the invitation of Bülent Ecevit , he joined his Democratic Left Party (DSP), for which he was first elected to the Grand National Assembly in the 1991 parliamentary election . He rose to become the party leader's close confidante. When Ecevit formed a minority government in January 1999 that was to rule the country until an early election, Özkan became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State. He kept the office when, after the parliamentary elections in April 1999, the DSP formed a coalition government with the Motherland Party and the Party of the Nationalist Movement (MHP).

When this government collapsed in the summer of 2002 as a result of a severe economic and political crisis, Özkan left the DSP together with his former ministerial colleagues İsmail Cem and Kemal Derviş and founded the New Turkey Party (YTP). After this came to just 1.15 percent in the following election , Özkan withdrew from politics and public life.