Erdoğan names new justice minister, TÜİK chief

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has appointed new names for the posts of justice minister and the head of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), which is responsible for posting official inflation statistics, among other data.

Erdoğan named Bekir Bozdağ, a member of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), as the new justice minister, according to the Official Gazette published on Jan. 29, after former Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül had resigned.

Bozdağ served as justice minister two times under the AKP government between 2013-2015 and 2015-2017, before serving as a deputy prime minister until 2018.

His duty as deputy prime minister was abolished as part of constitutional changes. Lastly, Bozdağ was serving as the chair of the constitution committee of the parliament.

“I thank our president, Mr. Erdoğan, for entrusting the post of justice minister to me... May God help us,” Bozdağ tweeted on Jan. 29.

“I have resigned from my duties at the ministry of justice, which I have been serving since July 19, 2017,” Gül tweeted on Jan. 29.

“I would like to express my gratitude to him [Erdoğan] for accepting my request of being relieved from the post, and I wish success to our new Justice Minister Mr. Bekir Bozdağ,” Gül added.

Erdoğan also dismissed Sait Erdal Dinçer as TÜİK chair less than a year after his appointment and named Erhan Çetinkaya to replace him, according to the Official Gazette.

Çetinkaya served as vice president of Turkey’s banking regulation agency.