Erdoğan Toprak (born 10 December 1961) is a Turkish politician and businessman from the

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party (RPP; , CHP ) is a Kemalism, Kemalist and Social democracy, social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal ...

(CHP), who has served as the Member of Parliament for İstanbul's third electoral district since 2011. Having served as the MP for the same district between 1995 and 2002 as a member of the Democratic Left Party (DSP), he served as the

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

responsible for Youth and Sports in the

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

Bülent Ecevit Mustafa Bülent Ecevit (; 28 May 1925 – 5 November 2006) was a Turkish politician, statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002. He served as prime minister in 197 ...

, before losing his seat at the 2002 general election. Re-elected as an MP in the 2011 general election and again in June 2015, Toprak currently serves as the Deputy Leader of the CHP since 25 December 2010. He was offered, but declined, a ministerial position by Prime Minister

Ahmet Davutoğlu Ahmet Davutoğlu (; born 26 February 1959) is a Turkish academic, politician and former diplomat who served as the List of Prime Ministers of Turkey, 26th Prime Minister of Turkey and Leader of the Justice and Development Party (Turkey), Justice ...

during the formation of an interim election government in August 2015.

Early life and career

Erdoğan Toprak was born in 1961 in the Zeytinli village of

Adana Adana is a large city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province, Adana province, and has a population of 1 81 ...

. He graduated from

Anadolu University Anadolu University () is a public university in Eskişehir, Turkey. Anadolu University Distance Education Faculty (or Anadolu University Global Campus) serves as the national provider of distance education and is a member of the European Associ ...

Faculty of Social Sciences before beginning his career in 1983 as a freelance businessman. He was a member of the Turkish Young Businessmen Association (TÜGİAD) and was a founding member of the

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

Young Businessmen Association, for which he served on the Executive Board. He was a member of the Durable Consumption Group Executive Board for the İstanbul Chamber of Commerce.

Sports

Since 1988, Toprak served as the manager of the Bahçelievler Sports Club for three terms, as the Beşiktaş J.K. gymnastics deputy manager and as the Vice President of

Bakırköyspor Bakırköyspor is a Turkish sports club from Bakırköy, Istanbul. The club was founded in 1949. The colours of Bakırköyspor are green-black. Bakırköyspor played in the Turkish Super League for 3 years, but after several unsuccessful seasons, ...

Politics

Early parliamentary career

Toprak entered active politics in 1992, becoming a Member of Parliament for İstanbul's third electoral district in the 1995 general election. He was re-elected as an MP in the 1999 general election. During his term in Parliament, he served on the Interior Commission and on the presidential council of the State Owned Enterprises (KİT) Commission. He also served as the President of research-investigation commissions and became the President of the Turkey-

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Interparliamentary Friendship Group, the Vice President of the Turkey-

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Interparliamentary Friendship Group and was a member of numerous other friendship groups. He chaired several parliamentary studies into problems faced by the country during the late 1990s. These included works on regional retirement homes, mobile education in the south-east of Turkey as well as an alternative development project for the region.

Minister of State

On 24 August 2002, Toprak replaced Fikret Ünlü as the

responsible for Youth and Sports in the

led by DSP leader

. He was known for the support he gave to

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

kayaking Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits fac ...

and

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

. He was also praised for enhancing facilities for disabled athletes. Following his tenure as minister, he was given the 'Sportsman of the Year' award by numerous media corporations. He lost his seat and his government position in the 2002 general election, in which the DSP failed to surpass the 10%

election threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of votes that a candidate or political party requires before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can operate in various w ...

and was left with no representation in Parliament.

Republican People's Party

Joining the

(CHP), Toprak became the Deputy Leader responsible for publicity, press and propaganda, administrative and financial affairs, in charge of employers' unions and professional associations on 25 December 2010. He was elected as an MP for İstanbul's third electoral district in the 2011 general election and was re-elected in the June 2015 general election. He founded the Business Dialogue and Solidarity Unit (İDDB) in order to maintain strong links between the CHP and the business sector. He was appointed and remains as the chief advisor to the CHP's leader

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (; born 17 December 1948), also referred to by his initials KK, is a Turkish politician who served as the Leader of the Republican People's Party, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) from 2010 to 2023. He was Lis ...

. Toprak was one of the five CHP politicians who were offered ministerial positions by

Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being: * Justice and Development Party (Morocco) * Justice and Development Party (Turkey) Justice and Development Party may also refer to: * Justice and Dev ...

leader

in August 2015. Davutoğlu had been tasked by President

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

to form an interim election government after coalition negotiations proved unsuccessful and resulted in Erdoğan calling an early election. Since the CHP had 131 MPs during the formation of the interim government, the party was entitled to 5 ministries in the cabinet, though Kılıçdaroğlu announced that the CHP would not take part and give up their five ministries to

independent politicians An independent politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or Bureaucracy, bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicia ...

. Toprak subsequently declined Davutoğlu's offer, as did the four other CHP MPs that had been offered ministerial positions.

References

External links

MP profile on the Grand National Assembly websiteCollection of all relevant news items at Haberler.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toprak, Erdogan 1961 births People from Adana Deputies of Istanbul Anadolu University alumni Living people Republican People's Party (Turkey) politicians Democratic Left Party (Turkey) politicians Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 20th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 21st Parliament of Turkey Members of the 57th government of Turkey Members of the 27th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 28th Parliament of Turkey