Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (Turkish pronunciation: [mevlyt ˈtʃavuʃˌoːɫu]; born 5 February 1968) is a Turkish diplomat and politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey since 24 November 2015. He previously served in the same position from August 2014 to August 2015.[1] He is a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, where he represents Antalya Province. First elected to Parliament in the 2002 general election, he is a founding member of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).[2][3] He was the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 2010 to 2012.

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 November 2015
President	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Prime Minister	Ahmet Davutoğlu Binali Yıldırım
Preceded by	Feridun Sinirlioğlu
In office 29 August 2014 – 28 August 2015
Prime Minister	Ahmet Davutoğlu
Preceded by	Ahmet Davutoğlu
Succeeded by	Feridun Sinirlioğlu
Minister of European Union Affairs
In office 25 December 2013 – 29 August 2014
Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Preceded by	Egemen Bağış
Succeeded by	Volkan Bozkır
Chief Negotiator for Turkish Accession to the European Union
In office 25 December 2013 – 29 August 2014
Prime Minister	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Preceded by	Egemen Bağış
Succeeded by	Volkan Bozkır
President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
In office 25 January 2010 – 25 January 2012
Preceded by	Lluís Maria de Puig
Succeeded by	Jean-Claude Mignon
Member of the Grand National Assembly
In office 1 November 2015 – 10 July 2018
Constituency	Antalya (Nov 2015, 2018)
In office 3 November 2002 – 7 June 2015
Constituency	Antalya (2002, 2007, 2011)
Personal details
Born	5 February 1968 Alanya, Turkey
Political party	Justice and Development Party
Spouse(s)	Hülya Çavuşoğlu
Children	1
Alma mater	Ankara University (BA) Long Island University (BA)
Signature

Early life and education

Çavuşoğlu was born at Alanya, Antalya Province. He graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Political Science, in 1988 where he studied international relations. He then received a masters in economics from Long Island University in New York, and studied for his doctorate at Bilkent University. He was a research fellow at London School of Economics, where he was for a time president of the Turkish Society.[2] Çavuşoğlu did not receive a PhD.[4]

Career

While serving in parliament, he has chaired the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population. In November 2009, he met the foreign minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, in the context of a report that the Assembly was preparing on the Soviet famine of 1932–1933.[5]

Council of Europe

Çavusoğlu together with Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, 2018, Ankara

Çavuşoğlu joined the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2003 and soon after was named the head of the Turkish delegation and a vice-president of the Assembly. During the January 2010 session of the Assembly, he was nominated and elected on 25 January 2010 to replace outgoing President Lluís Maria De Puig of Spain.[6] In the October reshuffle, this was the reason given for why he did not receive extra responsibilities in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government.[7][8][9] His candidacy for this post was supported by all of Turkey's main parties. He became president just months before Turkey took up the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (November 2010) and at the same time that there was a Turkish president of the Congress of the Council of Europe.[10] In 2012, he was succeeded by France's Jean-Claude Mignon.

2014 Turkish local elections

Çavuşoğlu was criticized by Hürriyet because of his intervention in the municipality election in Antalya that took place on 30 March 2014. When the opposing party candidate Mustafa Akaydin was ahead of the ruling party candidate, he visited the courthouse with his supporters and interrupted the counting process.[11] After his interruption, counting of votes was stopped. It was claimed that the votes not already counted were from suburbs where the opposing party had more supporters.[12]

2017 Rotterdam landing ban

On 11 March 2017, Çavuşoğlu was banned from landing in Rotterdam over remarks he had made about the way the Netherlands was treating Turkish émigrés,[13][14] after the Dutch government had threatened to deny landing rights. Çavuşoğlu had planned to organize a large gathering to talk about the 2017 Turkish constitutional referendum, in which many Dutch-based émigrés can vote.[14] However, his presence was claimed by the Dutch authorities to be a threat to public safety, and Çavuşoğlu was turned away, despite being the Foreign Minister.[14] Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the Netherlands, "Nazi remnants" and "fascists,"[14] which Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called "a crazy remark."[13] Çavuşoğlu followed by defending Erdoğan's remark[15] and by saying that the Netherlands was the "capital of fascism".[16]

Personal life

He is married with one child.[2] He speaks Turkish, English, German, and Japanese. He also studies the Russian language, only having spoken public it in limited settings,[17] and is being as he described on "an intermediate level".[18] His brother Hasan is the president of the Alanyaspor football club.

Honours and medals

Ribbon bar	Award or decoration	Country	Date	Place	Note	Ref.
	Order of Merit of Ukraine (3rd Class)	Ukraine	24 August 2013	Kyiv		[19][20]
	Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun	Japan	9 August 2019	Ankara		[21]
	Order of Friendship	Azerbaijan	5 February 2020	Baku		[22]
	Order of Merit of Ukraine (2nd Class)	Ukraine	22 August 2020	Kyiv		[23]
	Crescent of Pakistan	Pakistan	12 January 2021	Islamabad		[24]

See also

• List of foreign ministers in 2017
• List of current foreign ministers

References

1. "Davutoğlu announces new Turkish interim government dominated by AK Party loyalists". Today's Zaman. 28 August 2015. Archived from the original on 26 September 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
2. "Who is Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu?". Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. 2009. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
3. "PACE Head Presses For Political Reforms in Armenia". RFE/RL. 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
4. "Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu: faithful follower". POLITICO. 17 July 2014. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
5. "Russia to cooperate with PACE on famine report". The Voice of Russia. 25 November 2009. Archived from the original on 29 January 2010. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
6. Sariişik, Dönduü (25 January 2010). "Turkish parliamentarian elected president of PACE". Hürriyet. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
7. "AK Party to revive its reformist spirit". Today's Zaman. 9 October 2009. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
8. "Mr Mevlüt ÇAVUŞOĞLU". Council of Europe. 2009. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
9. "Prime Minister Erdogan's Speech at the AK Congress". AK Party. 3 October 2009. Archived from the original on 3 May 2010. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
10. "Newspot no.99 (October 2009)" (PDF). Prime Minister's Office. 1 October 2009. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
11. "Antalya'da kavga cikti". Hürriyet. 30 March 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
12. "0 Mart yerel seçimleri: AKP'nin sandık sandık, hile, baskı ve usulsüzlükleri". sendika.org. 30 March 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
13. Escritt, Thomas; Gumrukcu, Tuvan (11 March 2017). "Dutch PM bars Turkish foreign minister in escalation of rally row". Reuters. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
14. "Le président turc Erdogan qualifie les Pays-Bas de "vestiges du nazisme"". Le Figaro. 11 March 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
15. Roberts, Elizabeth (13 March 2017). "Turkish minister tells Dutch: 'I am not a terrorist'". CNN. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
16. (www.dw.com), Deutsche Welle. "Turkey's Cavusoglu: Netherlands is 'capital of fascism' - News - DW.COM - 12.03.2017".
17. https://rusorel.info/ya-tebe-po-russki-govoryu-mid-turcii-perexodit-na-russkij-yazyk/amp/
18. https://mk-turkey.ru/politics/2019/03/14/mot-chavushoglu-priznalsya-chto-ne-tolko-govorit-na.html
19. "УКАЗ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА УКРАЇНИ №452/2013". Presidency of Ukraine. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
20. "ÇAVUŞOĞLU'NA DEVLET NİŞANI VERİLDİ". Alanyaajans.net. 9 October 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
21. "FM Çavuşoğlu receives top Japanese order". Daily Sabah. Anadolu Agency. 9 August 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
22. "The Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on awarding "Dostlug" Order to Mevlut Cavusoglu". Presidency of Azerbaijan. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
23. "УКАЗ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА УКРАЇНИ №341/2020". Presidency of Ukraine. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
24. https://www.geo.tv/latest/329707-president-alvi-confers-hilal-e-pakistan-on-turkish-fm

External links

• Official website
• Council of Europe Profile (PDF)