MP prepares for fourth marriage amid controversy

ANKARA

New Welfare Party's (YRP) 74-year-old lawmaker Ali Yüksel has announced his plans to marry for the fourth time, amid swirling controversy, this time to a university student.

Yüksel came into the limelight earlier this year when he revealed he had three wives simultaneously.

The deputy, elected from ruling National Alliance partner YRP in the last May elections, spoke openly about his previous marriages, explaining that his first wife, to whom he was legally married, had passed away, and he had mutually separated from his other two wives with whom he had contracted imam marriages.

Yüksel told daily Hürriyet that his soon-to-be wife is a third-year psychology student at a university. He stated that he would not request her to discontinue her studies but would engage in discussions regarding her unlikely career.

"Neither she nor I will allow anything that would hinder the happiness of our home," he said. The couple plans to tie the knot in the capital Ankara over the weekend.

Responding to the criticism he faces for having multiple wives, Yüksel defended his actions within the framework of his faith, saying, "I have not done anything against my faith... I am a Muslim, and I try to learn it correctly and live it correctly."

Despite Turkish law limiting citizens to one legal marriage, polygyny is allowed under traditional Sunni and Shia Islamic marital jurisprudence.

Yüksel has faced scrutiny for his unconventional marital choices, previously remarking, "When I die, the courts of the Turkish Republic will not judge me, I will not answer to them. I will answer to God. I will organize my life according to God's permission."