Bülent Arınç (; born 25 May 1948) is a conservative Turkish

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

. He served as the 22nd

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

of the

Parliament of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...

from 2002 to 2007 and as a

Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey The Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey is the abolished official deputy of the head of government of Turkey. Conventionally all of the junior partners in a coalition get one deputy, and they are ranked according to the size of their respective par ...

between 2009 and 2015.

Early life and education

He was born on 25 May 1948 in

Bursa, Turkey ( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the ...

. After finishing high school in

Manisa Manisa (), historically known as Magnesia, is a city in Turkey's Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province. Modern Manisa is a booming center of industry and services, advantaged by its closeness to the international port ci ...

, Bülent Arınç attended

University of Ankara Ankara University ( tr, Ankara Üniversitesi) is a public university in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in Turkey after the formation of the republic in 1923. The university has 40 vocat ...

, earning a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

degree in 1970. After his graduation, he worked as a freelance lawyer in Manisa. He is of Grecophone Cretan Turk heritage with his ancestors arriving to Turkey as Cretan refugees during the time of Sultan Abdul Hamid II to escape massacres and is fluent in Cretan Greek.

Entry into politics

Interested in politics from his university years, Bülent Arınç ran for the deputy of Manisa in the 1995 general elections, and entered the

Turkish Grand National Assembly The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Const ...

from the

Welfare Party The Welfare Party ( tr, Refah Partisi, RP) was an Islamist political party in Turkey. It was founded by Ali Türkmen, Ahmet Tekdal, and Necmettin Erbakan in Ankara in 1983 as heir to two earlier parties, National Order Party (MNP) and National ...

( tr, Refah Partisi). He became also a member of the board of his party, and served in the parliament's justice commission. Following the closing of the Welfare Party by the

Constitutional Court of Turkey The Constitutional Court of Turkey ( tr, , sometimes abbreviated as ''AYM'') is the highest legal body for constitutional review in Turkey. It "examines the constitutionality, in respect of both form and substance, of laws, decrees having the for ...

on February 15, 1998, he transferred to the

Virtue Party Virtue Party ( tr, Fazilet Partisi, FP) was an Islamist political party established on 17 December 1997 in Turkey. It was found unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court and then banned on 22 June 2001 for violating the secularist articles of ...

( tr, Fazilet Partisi). Arınç was elected in the 1999 general elections as deputy of Manisa, this time from the Virtue Party. He became a member of the foreign affairs commission of the parliament. The constitutional court closed the Virtue Party on June 22, 2001. Bülent Arınç, along with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, co-founded the Justice and Development Party ( tr, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) the same year on August 14. He was appointed speaker of his party's group in the parliament. Bülent Arınç was elected the third time deputy of Manisa in the general elections held on November 3, 2002. On November 19, 2002, he was elected Speaker of the Parliament. On May 1, 2009, he was appointed as State Minister Responsible for Foundations and the

Turkish Radio and Television Corporation The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT; Turkish : ) is the national public broadcaster of Turkey, founded in 1964. TRT was for many years the only television and radio provider in Turkey. Before the introduction of commercial radio ...

(TRT; Turkish: ''Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu'') and Deputy Prime Minister in the second cabinet of Erdoğan.

Views

Arınç refers to the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia ( 'Holy Wisdom'; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque ( tr, Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The cathedral was originally built as a Greek Ortho ...

as a

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

, which has angered the Greek government. He wishes to see it reconverted from a museum into a functioning mosque. In 2014, Arınç stated women should not laugh out loud to him in public during a speech about "moral corruption" at an Eid al-Fitr holiday gathering: "''She will not laugh in public to Mr. Arinc. She will not be inviting in her attitudes and will protect her chasteness."'' When asked to explain his comments, he suggested that women ''"leave their husbands at home, and go to vacation with their lovers"'' and that they ''"can't wait to climb poles when they see someone"'', referring to women who

pole dance Pole dance combines dance and acrobatics centered on a vertical pole. This performance art form takes place not only in strip club, gentleman's clubs as erotic dance, but also as a mainstream form of fitness, practiced in gyms and dedicated da ...

while on holiday. Both comments were widely ridiculed in social media. In November 2020, Arınç resigned as a member of the High Advisory Board of the Turkish presidency, demanding political reforms in the. He referred to the juridical situation in Turkey and advocated for the release of the philanthropist

Osman Kavala Osman Kavala (born 2 October 1957) is a businessman, activist and philanthropist who has supported numerous civil society organizations in Turkey since the early 1990s. Kavala is the founder and chair of the board of Anadolu Kültür, an Istanbu ...

and the Kurdish politician

Selahattin Demirtaş Selahattin Demirtaş (born 10 April 1973) is a politician, author, and former member of the parliament of Turkey. He was the co-leader of the left-wing pro- Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), serving alongside Figen Yüksekdağ from 2014 ...

of the Peoples Democratic Party. In 2012, he opposed education in the

Kurdish language Kurdish (, ) is a language or a group of languages spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish constitutes a dialect continuum, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European languag ...

as he didn't deem it a "language of civilization". Then in 2020 he encouraged the Turkish society to read the book Devran of Demirtaş, mentioning that the Kurds are the oppressed in Turkey. This drew a harsh criticism from Erdoğan, who denied there was a Kurdish issue in Turkey and branded Demirtaş as a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

Personal life

Bülent Arınç is married with two children. His third child, a son, was killed in a traffic accident in 1997. Arınç is of Cretan Turk heritage with his ancestors arriving to Turkey as Cretan refugees during the time of Sultan

Abdülhamid II Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid II ( ota, عبد الحميد ثانی, Abd ül-Hamid-i Sani; tr, II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 10 February 1918) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 31 August 1876 to 27 April 1909, and the last sultan to ...

References

External links

*
TBMM profile
* https://twitter.com/bulent_arinc , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Arinc, Bulent 1948 births Ankara University Faculty of Law alumni Cretan Turks Deputies of Bursa Deputies of Manisa Deputy Prime Ministers of Turkey Justice and Development Party (Turkey) politicians Living people Speakers of the Parliament of Turkey Virtue Party politicians Welfare Party politicians Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 23rd Parliament of Turkey Members of the 22nd Parliament of Turkey Members of the 21st Parliament of Turkey Members of the 20th Parliament of Turkey Ministers of State of Turkey Members of the 60th government of Turkey