Binali Yıldırım

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Person.png Binali Yıldırım   WebsiteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(politician)
Portrait of Binali Yıldırım (cropped).jpg
Born20. December. 1955
Refahiye, Turkey
NationalityTurkish
Alma materIstanbul Technical University, World Maritime University
Children3
SpouseSemiha Yıldırım
PartyJustice and Development Party
Turkish PM the Turkey/deep state/CIA tried totopple

Employment.png Prime Minister of Turkey Wikipedia-icon.png

In office
24 May 2016 - Present

Employment.png Turkey/Minister of Transport

In office
6 July 2011 - 1 November 2011

Employment.png Turkey/Minister of Transport

In office
29 August 2007 - 8 March 2011

Employment.png Turkey/Minister of Transport

In office
18 November 2002 - 8 May 2007

Binali Yıldırım is a Turkish politician who was made 27th and last Prime Minister of Turkey from 2016 to 2018 and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly from 2018 to 2019. He was Leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) from 2016 to 2017, then becoming parliamentary leader until 2018. Before that, he was transport minister during the largest and fastest expansion of Turkish infrastructure ever.

On July 15, 2016, a faction of the military with support from the CIA staged a coup that attempted to overthrow his government but it failed.[1]

Early Career

Yıldırım was chairman of the board of Directors of İstanbul Fast Ferries Company (İDO) from 1994 to 2000 before being elected as an AKP Member of Parliament for İstanbul's first electoral district during the 2002 general election. He was appointed as Minister of Transport by Prime Minister Abdullah Gül and continued in office after Erdoğan became Prime Minister in 2003. As Transport Minister, he presided over numerous projects such as Marmaray, high-speed rail lines and an expansion in the country's airport and road facilities.

Leaving office in a cabinet reshuffle in 2013, Yıldırım ran as the AKP candidate for Mayor of İzmir in the 2014 local elections but lost to the incumbent Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate Aziz Kocaoğlu. He was appointed as special advisor to Erdoğan in June 2014 and left Parliament in the June 2015 general election due to the AKP's three-term rule for its sitting MPs. He was re-appointed as Transport Minister by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu after being reelected to Parliament in the November 2015 general election. Following Davutoğlu's resignation as party leader due to a breakdown in relations with President Erdoğan on 5 May 2016, Yıldırım was announced as the AKP's next leader by the Central Executive Committee on 19 May and was elected unopposed during the party's 2nd Extraordinary Congress on 22 May 2016.

As a staunch supporter of Erdoğan, Yıldırım was referred to as a 'low-profile' Prime Minister and expected to spearhead a transition from a parliamentary system of government to an executive presidency, which would delegate greater powers to Erdoğan and the presidency.[2] Following the declared victory of the 'Yes' vote in the 2017 constitutional referendum despite electoral irregularities, Yıldırım resigned as AKP Leader in place of Erdoğan, who was elected as his successor during the 3rd AKP extraordinary Congress on 21 May 2017. Yıldırım was subsequently elected as the AKP's parliamentary leader by 300 votes on 24 May. The office of Prime Minister of Turkey was abolished as a result of the 2017 constitutional referendum.

In 2013, Yıldırım was implicated in a government corruption scandal, with the financial and social activities of his family members also coming under scrutiny. He has caused controversy over his defence of greater government surveillance and comments favouring sex segregation. He was the AKP nominee for Mayor of Istanbul in both the March 2019 and June 2019 Istanbul mayoral elections (the latter of which occurred after the AKP had the March election annulled), losing both to CHP nominee Ekrem İmamoğlu, who he conceded defeat to and congratulated following the June 2019 election.[3][4]

Minister of Transport, Maritime, and Communication

Yıldırım signing an agreement with his Argentine counterpart in 2011

Binali Yıldırım has been referred to as the AKP's 'unchanging Transport Minister' due to his almost uninterrupted 11-year term in office.[5]

Yıldırım was made Minister of Transport between November 2002 and November 2011, leaving office three months before the 2007 general election and the 2011 general election in accordance to Article 114 of the Turkish constitution, which requires the vacation of the partisan Minister of Transport and his or her replacement by an independent minister three months before the end of a parliamentary term.[6] In November 2011, the portfolios of maritime and communications were merged with the Transport Ministry, with Yıldırım becoming the first Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication.[7] He left office during a cabinet reshuffle in 2013, but was reinstated as Minister by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on 24 November 2015.[8]

On his personal website, Yıldırım has claimed that 17,500 kilometers of new motorways, 29 new airports and 1,213 kilometers of high-speed railway were constructed during his term as Minister.[9]

One of the most prevalent projects commissioned by the AKP government was the establishment of a new artificial waterway, running parallel to the Bosphorus and linking the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea. The project, named Kanal İstanbul is one of the most prominent goals for the party's 2023 vision.

Government surveillance and censorship

In 2011, the portfolio of communications was officially added to Yıldırım's brief. As the Minister responsible for Transport, Maritime and Communication, Yıldırım oversaw significant government censorship of the Internet and greater government surveillance. In response to criticism of growing government surveillance, Yıldırım also caused controversy by responding 'If you are not up to anything illegal, don't worry about surveillance'.[10]

In 2008, growing internet censorship resulted in blocks being implemented on YouTube and Blogger and approximately 1,000 other sites. A report commissioned by the British organisation Cyber-Rights.Org stated that 'the current Turkish law on controlling Internet content, through its procedural and substantive deficiencies, is designed to censor and silence political speech.'[11] In response to criticism over Law 5651, which made it easier for the government to block websites, Yıldırım claimed that sites would continue to be blocked 'as they post content inappropriate for Turkish families'.[12] In 2010, close to 44 IP addresses used by YouTube and Google were blocked, with the total number of blocked websites being estimated to be at 8,000.[13] Although Yıldırım technically left office on 25 December 2013, he led efforts to generating court orders to block the American companies Twitter and YouTube due to a large-scale online anti-government backlash following revelations of government corruption in 2013.[14]

Personal and family finances

Yıldırım's personal and family finances have continuously been criticised by the political opposition. In March 2014, Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy leader Sezgin Tanrıkulu brought forward allegations that Yıldırım's son owned 30 ships, with both Yıldırım and his son being partial owners of numerous shipping companies around the world, some of which were also owned by businessmen that had been accused of corruption alongside Yıldırım during the 2013 corruption scandal.[15] Allegations regarding Yıldırım's son first emerged in 2003, when he allegedly obtained a loan from a shipping firm named Santour that had been leased a ferryboat by Yıldırım as Transport Minister.[16] It was further alleged that the firm was being funded by the state despite being a private company.[17] In response to the scandal, Yıldırım issued a statement claiming that he had no interest or involvement in the matter and that the institution responsible was the Privatisation Administration, not the Ministry of Transport.[18]

Foreign policy

Shortly after taking office as Prime Minister, Yıldırım gave an overview of the foreign policy that his government would follow. He claimed that regional problems increased the importance of Turkey as a regional power, further claiming that he would follow the 'simple' foreign policy goal of increasing the number of allies and decreasing the number of enemies in the region.[19] His speech was seen as a reference to the increasing isolation of Turkey on the world stage and the growing hostility of other countries (NATO/EU) towards the AKP government.[20] Commentators claimed that Yıldırım could pursue a 'revisionist' foreign policy with the consent of Erdoğan, departing from the previous foreign policy ideals of the AKP, in an attempt to end both Turkey's international isolation and domestic problems caused by the AKP's responses to events such as the Syrian Civil War.[21]

European Union

Following Yıldırım's election as AKP leader on 22 May, the European Union released a statement on 23 May congratulating him and calling for the new government to work towards implementing the migrant deal agreed on 18 March.[22] On 25 May 2016, he claimed that Turkey was meeting all the standards for EU membership, but was being met by a "cyclical rapprochement" and a "negative discriminatory process". He called on the EU to end the 'double standards' shown against Turkey.

Russia

As part of the new government's program, Yıldırım announced plans to keep open channels for mutual dialogue with Russia in an attempt to normalise relations on the basis of common interests. Turkish relations with Russia deteriorated sharply in November 2015 after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet claiming that it had violated Turkish Airspace. The deterioration in relations also caused economic and trade relations between the two countries to decline. It was expected that 'normalisation' of economic relations with Russia would be one of the most important responsibilities of the new government.[23]


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References

  1. ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-15/turkish-premier-says-elements-of-army-attempt-to-seize-power
  2. ↑ http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/siyaset/539369/Hukumetin_ilk_hedefi_baskanlik_yolunda_yeni_yonetim_sistemi.html
  3. ↑ https://www.haberturk.com/son-dakika-ak-parti-istanbul-buyuksehir-belediye-baskan-adayi-binali-yildirim-aciklama-yapiyor-2497829
  4. ↑ https://ahvalnews.com/istanbul-election-rerun/akps-yildirim-concedes-defeat-istanbul-rerun
  5. ↑ http://www.sozcu.com.tr/2016/gundem/erbakandan-sonra-ilk-muhendis-basbakan-1236872/
  6. ↑ {https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/anayasa/anayasa82.htm
  7. ↑ http://www.udhb.gov.tr/k-1-tarihce.html
  8. ↑ http://www.internethaber.com/yeni-bakanlar-listesi-kabinede-surprizler-var-1489467h.htm
  9. ↑ http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/binali-yildirim-a-man-of-projects-.aspx?PageID=238&NID=99385&NewsCatID=338
  10. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20131227062321/http://blog.milliyet.com.tr/politik-mesajlar-nasil-isler-/Blog/?BlogNo=400016
  11. ↑ https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2008/10/there-are-more-people-working-on-censoring-the-internet-than-developing-it/
  12. ↑ http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/websites-to-continue-to-be-banned-in-turkey-transportation-minister-10080451
  13. ↑ https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2008/10/there-are-more-people-working-on-censoring-the-internet-than-developing-it/
  14. ↑ http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/03/turkey-twitter-shutdown-internet-ban-legal-implications.html
  15. ↑ http://t24.com.tr/haber/chpli-tanrikulu-binali-yildirimin-oglunun-30-adet-geminin-sahibi-oldugu-iddiasi-dogru-mu,254081%7C
  16. ↑ http://www.turizmdebusabah.com/haberler/binali-yildirimin-oglu-erkan-yildirimin-gemi-sahibi-olmasi-basindan-tepki-aliyor-10203.html
  17. ↑ http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/kazidikca-carpici-kokular-yayiliyor-159685
  18. ↑ http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/yildirim-ilgim-ve-dahlim-yok-159249
  19. ↑ http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/new-pm-signals-shift-in-foreign-policy-more-friends-than-enemies.aspx?pageID=238&nID=99616&NewsCatID=338
  20. ↑ http://www.internethaber.com/binali-yildirimdan-bir-ilk-hic-isitmemistik-1596209h.htm
  21. ↑ http://odatv.com/binali-yildirim-hukumetinde-dis-politikada-revizyon-mu-olacak-2205161200.html
  22. ↑ http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/abden-binali-yildirima-kutlama-mesaji-40107559
  23. ↑ http://t24.com.tr/haber/nali-yildirim-hukumeti-dis-politikada-hangi-adimlari-atacak,342234
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