Hikmet Çetin

Hikmet Çetin at the Munich Security Conference in February 2011

Hikmet Çetin (* 1937 in Lice , Diyarbakır ) is a Turkish politician and former chairman of the Republican People's Party . From 1991 to 1994 he was Foreign Minister of Turkey.

youth

Hikmet was born in Lice, a district of Diyarbakır, to Kurdish parents. After he finished elementary school in his hometown and high school in Ankara , he studied political science at Ankara University in 1960 , where he also got his bachelor's degree in economics.

After his training, Hikmet Çetin worked for the state planning organization ( Devlet Planlama Teşkilatı ). He then went to the United States , where he received his Masters in Economics of Development from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts . In 1968 he was doing research at Stanford University in California . In 1970 he did his military service in Turkey. During this time he was a part-time lecturer at the Technical University of the Middle East in Ankara .

Political career

Hikmet Çetin won a seat in parliament for the Republican People's Party in the Istanbul constituency in 1977 . Between 1978 and 1979 he served as Minister of State and later as Deputy Prime Minister under Bülent Ecevit . After the military coup in 1980, Çetin traveled to Yemen to help build the government there.

In 1987 he became a member of the Diyarbakır constituency for the social democrat Halkçı Parti . Hikmet Çetin received his third mandate in 1990 for the constituency of Gaziantep , again for the social democrat Halkçı Parti. He was appointed Foreign Minister of Turkey by Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel in 1991. Hikmet Çetin resigned from his post as Foreign Minister on July 27, 1994.

Hikmet Çetin resumed his seat in Parliament in 1995 and was elected President of Parliament on October 16, 1997, a position he held until April 18, 1999. Çetin and other Turkish politicians, such as the District Mayor of Şişli , Mustafa Sarıgül , are working to found a social democratic party in Turkey.