Mehmet Müezzinoğlu (born January 9, 1955) is a Turkish physician and politician, who served as the Minister of Labour and Social Security between 2016 and 2017, and the

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

from 2013 to 2016.

Early years

He was born on January 9, 1955, in

Arriana Arriana () is a municipality in the Rhodope regional unit, Greece. The seat of the municipality is in Fillyra. Municipality The municipality Arriana was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 4 former municipal ...

village of

Rhodope Rhodope may refer to: * Rhodope (mythology), several figures of Greek mythology * Rhodope Mountains, in Bulgaria and Greece * Rhodope (regional unit), of Greece * Rhodope (province), a Roman and Byzantine province * 166 Rhodope, an asteroid * Rhodop ...

to Ali and his wife Fatma, a family from the

Turkish minority in Greece Minorities in Greece are small in size compared to Balkan regional standards, and the country is largely ethnically homogeneous. This is mainly due to the population exchanges between Greece and neighboring Turkey ( Convention of Lausanne) and ...

. Müezzinoğlu went to

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

for his high school education. He studied in an

İmam Hatip school In Turkey, an İmam Hatip school (, 'hatip' coming from Arabic '' khatib'') is a secondary education institution. As the name suggests, they were founded in lieu of a vocational school to train government employed imams; after madrasas in Turke ...

, where he met

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 ...

, who was his classmate. In 1983, Müezzinoğlu immigrated from Greece illegally by crossing the river

Maritsa Maritsa or Maritza ( ), also known as Evros ( ) and Meriç ( ), is a river that runs through the Balkans in Southeast Europe. With a length of ,

(). Before acquiring Turkish citizenship in 1986, he lived in Turkey as a heimatlos between 1983 and 1986. Müezzinoğlu completed his medical specialisation in

internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...

at Haseki Hospital in 1986 after graduating from Cerrahpaşa Medicine Faculty of

Istanbul University Istanbul University, also known as University of Istanbul (), is a Public university, public research university located in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded by Mehmed II on May 30, 1453, a day after Fall of Constantinople, the conquest of Constantinop ...

in 1982. Before entering politics, he worked as a

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 ...

in a private hospital he co-founded in Avcılar district of

Istanbul Province Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. In his social life, he is a member of various associations and foundations related to

Western Thrace Turks Turks of Western Thrace (; ) are ethnic Turks who live in Western Thrace, in the province of East Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece. According to the Greek census of 1991, there were approximately 50,000 of Turkish origin in Western Th ...

Politics

Müezzinoğlu became a member of the Islamist

Welfare Party The Welfare Party (, 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 Salvation Party ...

(, RP) in 1992, where he helped to make policy alongside Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Between 2002 and 2007, he served as the chairman of the

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 ...

's Istanbul Province organization. He was elected as member of parliament for Istanbul Province in the 2007 general election. He was reelected to the parliament in the 2011 general election, this time as deputy for

Edirne Edirne (; ), historically known as Orestias, Adrianople, is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the Edirne Province, province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second c ...

. On January 24, 2013, Mehmet Müezzinoğlu was appointed as Minister of Health in the cabinet of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, replacing Recep Akdağ. He kept his post in three successive cabinets of

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 ...

. On 24 May 2016, the

Third Davutoğlu Cabinet The Third Davutoğlu Cabinet is the 64th government of the Republic of Turkey. The government came into effect after the Justice and Development Party (Turkey), Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, won a par ...

was dissolved, and Müezzinoğlu's term as Health Minister ended. On 31 August 2016, he was appointed Minister of Labour and Social Security in the Cabinet of Yıldırım replacing

Süleyman Soylu Süleyman Soylu (; born 21 November 1969) is a Turkish politician. He is a deputy chairman of the Justice and Development Party. He previously served as the Minister of Labour and Social Security from November 2015 to August 2016 and the Minis ...

. During a cabinet reshuffle on 19 July 2017, his term ended, and he was succeeded by Jülide Sarıeroğlu.

During the 2013 protests

During the

2013 protests in Turkey A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at the violent eviction of a sit-in at the park protesting ...

, several makeshift infirmaries were erected to treat victims of the violence. The injuries included trauma from plastic bullets and teargas canisters. In response to this, Müezzinoğlu declared that " e infirmaries around the protest areas are illegal. This is ideologic and it's an execution violating the legal structure. There will be legal action taken against the medics working in those infirmaries."

Family life

Mehmet Müezzinoğlu is married and has two children.

References

External links

*https://twitter.com/MuezzinogluDR {{DEFAULTSORT:Muezzinoglu, Mehmet Living people 1955 births Greek people of Turkish descent Greek emigrants to Turkey Imam Hatip school alumni Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine alumni 20th-century Turkish physicians Turkish internists Welfare Party politicians Justice and Development Party (Turkey) politicians Deputies of Istanbul Ministers of health of Turkey Ministers of labour and social security of Turkey Members of the 23rd Parliament of Turkey Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 63rd government of Turkey Members of the 64th government of Turkey Members of the 65th government of Turkey People from Rhodope (regional unit)