Vecdi Gönül

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Mehmet Vecdi Gönül (born Erzincan, 29 November 1939) is Minister of Defence of Turkey and Member of Parliament for Kocaeli.

[edit] Biography

Turkey's Minister of National Defense Vecdi Gonul
Turkey's Minister of National Defense Vecdi Gonul

Gönül's father was a teacher in Military high schools. He graduated in political science from Ankara University in 1960 and returned to Erzincan as a civil servant. He completed a masters degree at the University of Southern California and then returned to a career in public administration in Turkey, eventually becoming security chief and then governor of Kocaeli, Ankara (during the 1980 Turkish coup d'état) and Istanbul provinces. In the mid-80s he was governor of Izmir where he is remembered for a large project of road-building and the construction of Adnan Menderes Airport. Gönül eventually became president of the Public Spending Authority (Sayıştay), the country's highest authority on public finance.

Gönül was elected to the Turkish parliament for Kocaeli on 18 April 1999, and was always one of the leading lights of the ruling AKP, a candidate for party leadership when Tayyip Erdoğan was barred from entering parliament, and in 2007 was a candidate for President of Turkey. As his wife is not head-scarfed, Gönül was often seen as the moderate face of the Islamic-leaning AKP.

He became minister of defence on 19 November 2002.

[edit] Speeches and sayings

  • The Turkish woman is an ornament of the house, the man is its honour. Western women are unfortunately oppressed.... 27% of Europeans were born out of wedlock... (in a speech made on International Women's Day in 2005. [1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Milliyet newspaper online - Vecdi Gönül's speech
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