Turkey appoints third ever woman governor

ANKARA

Yasemin Özata Çetinkaya has a Ph.D in economics.

The third female governor in the Turkish Republic’s history has been appointed to a province in the northern Black Sea region with a cabinet decision, in which governors of 11 provinces were changed.

The government has launched a significant reshuffle of governors across the country, replacing the governors of 11 provinces with a decision by the cabinet that was published in the Official Gazette on Feb. 19, following President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s approval.

Accordingly, the governors of six provinces – Ağrı, Bolu, Gaziantep, Mardin, Şırnak and Van – have been reassigned to headquarters in Ankara, while the governors of five provinces – Bingöl, Düzce, Elazığ, Sinop and Tekirdağ – have been posted to other provinces.

Among the replaced governors, Yasemin Özata Çetinkaya was appointed to Turkey’s northern province of Sinop in the Black Sea region, marking the third female governor in the country’s history.

Lale Aytamam was appointed Turkey’s first ever female governor in 1991 to the country’s western province of Muğla, where she held the post for four years.

Turkey’s second female governor, Esengül Civelek, was appointed in 2011 to the northwestern province of Yalova and was later appointed to Kırklareli in Thrace in 2014.

Çetinkaya and Civelek are the only two female governors currently at work.

Çetinkaya said she was honored and happy to have been appointed as Turkey’s third female governor.

“I hope I will not shame Turkish women. Such duties require great responsibilities and they may block the future of women that will come after us,” said Çetinkaya on Feb. 19, at private broadcaster NTV. “In this sense, I would like to perform well in a manner that opens new paths for women.”

Çetinkaya graduated from Ankara University’s Faculty of Political Science Public Administration department in 1996 and started working as a district governor the same year.

Çetinkaya holds a master’s degree on Public Administration from Ankara University and a Ph. D from Karadeniz Technical University (KTÜ) in economics.