Halil Mutlu (born 1971) is a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

-born

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

, political lobbyist and community activist living in the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

. Mutlu is currently serving as a board member of the Turkish American Steering Committee (TASC) and is a former chair of the Türken Foundation which is thought to be closely tied to and probably sponsored by the Turkish Government. His father Kemal is the uncle of

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 ...

which makes Mutlu a cousin of Turkey's current leader. Mutlu has met with former US Vice President

Mike Pence Michael Richard Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...

and retired Army Lt. Gen. and former US national security advisor Michael T. Flynn. Mutlu was born in the northeastern

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

town of

Güneysu Güneysu is a town in Rize Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey, inland from the city of Rize. It is the seat of Güneysu District.

in 1971 and grew up in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. He attended Medical School at

Selçuk University Selçuk University () is a public university, state-owned higher educational institution which was founded 1975 in Konya, Turkey. It is one of the largest universities in Turkey with a student body of 63,000 of which 2,200 are foreign students f ...

in the city of

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey and after graduation became an emergency physician. While staying in the United States for an academic visit, he became a licensed physician, was allowed to practice in the US and specialized in internal medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center affiliated

Berkshire Medical Center Berkshire Medical Center is a mid-sized non-profit community hospital located in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The hospital is part of Berkshire Health Systems, a three-hospital healthcare system operating in Western Massachusetts. In 2022, the hos ...

. Mutlu is working at the Baystate Medical Center in

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

since 2010.

Political activities

In July 2016, immediately in the aftermath of the coup attempt in Turkey, Mutlu drove to Saylorsburg with a carload of friends and participated in a protest outside the residency of preacher and political figure

Fethullah Gülen Muhammed Fethullah Gülen (27 April 1941 – 20 October 2024) was a Turkish Ulama, Muslim scholar, preacher, and leader of the Gülen movement who as of 2016 had millions of followers. Gülen was an influential Neo-Ottomanism, neo-Ottomanist, A ...

who he accused of being behind the coup attempt – a claim which is strongly doubted by US officials and international intelligence experts and could not be backed by evidence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mutlu, Halil Living people 1971 births Erdoğan family People from Güneysu