Governors of 41 provinces reshuffled in Turkey

The governors of 41 provinces of Turkey were changed with a new decree law issued early on June 21. 

According to the decree published in the Official Gazette, 20 governors were relocated to the central office as part of decisions taken in a cabinet meeting and approved by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 

Deputy Interior Minister Sebahattin Öztürk was among those relocated to the central office, while the governors of 12 districts were also appointed to become provincial governors. 

Deputy Family and Social Policies Minister Mehmet Ersoy has been appointed to replace Öztürk. 

Hüseyin Avni Coş, the governor of the northwestern province of Sakarya, was also relocated to the central office. 

Coş previously made headlines after being caught on camera angrily denouncing a protester as a “gavat,” roughly translated as “pimp,” back in 2014. Last year he once again made headlines after being recorded challenging coup plotting soldiers during the failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt while holding an automatic rifle. 

Nine of the governors relocated to the central office were from metropolitan areas, including the wastern provinces of Aydın and Denizli, the Central Anatolian provinces of Malatya and Eskişehir, the southwestern province of Muğla, the Black Sea province of Samsun, the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, the eastern province of Van and the province of Sakarya.