Hulusi Akar

Akar during the 55th MSC 2019

Hulusi Akar (born March 12, 1952 in Kayseri ) was a general of the Turkish armed forces (Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri) until July 8, 2018 , the commander of the army (Türk Kara Kuvetleri) and since August 15, 2015 chief of the general staff and thus as Genelkurmay Başkanı military commander of the armed forces. He has been Minister of Defense since July 9, 2018 .

Life

Training as an officer and general staff officer

General Hulusi Akar (2016)

Akar joined the armed forces after attending school and was a graduate of the Army School (Kara Harp Okulu) in 1972 and the Infantry School (Piyade Okulu) in 1973 . In the following years he was from 1973 to 1980 uses as an officer in Thrace , in the peacekeeping United Nations in Cyprus UNFICYP ( United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus ) , at Army School, as company commander and as an information technology officer.

In 1982 he graduated from the Army Academy ( Kara Harp Akademisi ) and 1985 from the Armed Forces Academy ( Silahlı Kuvvetler Akademisi ) . In the meantime, various posts followed in the general staff and in the office of the chief of staff, as head of the operations department and the training department of a unit and as a general staff officer. After 1987, the US Military Academy (USMA) in West Point had graduated, he was first a lecturer at the army academy and was following an intelligence officer in the Headquarters Allied NATO -Streitkräfte in southern Europe AFSOUTH ( Allied Forces Southern Europe ) in Naples . After his return to Turkey, he was an officer for public relations from 1993 to 1994 and then from 1994 to 1997 an officer in the office of the chief of staff.

Promotion to general and chief of staff

After serving in the headquarters of the Turkish troop contingent at the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina UNMIBH ( United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina ) from 1997 to 1998 , Akar was promoted to Brigadier General (Tuğgeneral) in 1998 and commander of the 51st Special Operations Brigade (51st İç Güvenlik Piyade) in Hozat . He then worked for NATO in the Planning and Policy Department at AFSOUTH headquarters in Naples between 2000 and 2002 .

In 2002 he was promoted to major general (Tümgeneral) . As such, Akar was initially commander of the army school from 2002 to 2005 and then between 2005 and 2007 commander of the army academy. After he was promoted to lieutenant general (co- general ) in 2007, he took on the role of commander of the logistics command of the army (Kara Kuvvetleri Lojistik Komutanlığı) in Ankara between 2007 and 2009 . Then was 2009-2011 Commanding General of the in Şişli stationed 3rd Corps, as a fast task force NRDC-T (NATO Rapid Deployable Corps-Turkey) to the NATO Response Force ( NATO Response Force ) (NRF) belongs.

In 2011 Akar was promoted to General (Orgeneral) and took over as the successor to General Aslan Güner on August 30, 2011 as Deputy Chief of Staff (Genelkurmay II . He remained in this post until he was replaced by General Yaşar Güler on August 22, 2013, while he was himself the successor to General Hayri Kıvrıkoğlu Supreme Commander of the Army (Kara Kuvvetleri Komutanı) .

Joseph Dunford , Hulusi Akar and Valery Gerasimov discuss their countries' military operation in northern Syria, March 2017

On August 18, 2015, General Akar was appointed Chief of the General Staff (Genelkurmay Başkanı) , succeeding General Necdet Özel . As such, as Chairman of the General Staff, he was the military commander of the armed forces and also a member of the National Security Council ( Millî Güvenlik Kurulu ) . His successor as commander in chief of the army was then General Salih Zeki Çolak .

General Akar, who has received several domestic and foreign medals for his military services, completed courses at the Technical University of the Middle East , at Ankara University and at the Bosphorus University .

Defense Minister

On July 9, 2018, he was appointed Minister of Defense by President Erdoğan .

Private

Akar is married to Şule Akar and has two children with her.

His role in the 2016 coup attempt

During the attempted coup on July 15, 2016, Akar was taken hostage at the headquarters of the armed forces in Ankara by his own coup men and taken by helicopter to their headquarters outside Ankara. At the Akinci Air Force Base northwest of Ankara, the coup plotters wanted to force Akar to sign the coup declaration. His adjutant, Levent Türkkan , is said to have held a gun to his head. Allegedly one of his hostage-takers, General Hakan Evrim , suggested to Akar that he speak to Fethullah Gülen in the United States to change his mind about the coup. Akar refused. It quickly became clear that the coup would fail.

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım appointed General Ümit Dündar as the new military chief on the night of July 16 . During the night, security forces were able to rescue Akar from the violence of the putschists at the Akinci air force base.