Ali Babacan

Ali Babacan (born 4 April 1967, Ankara) is a Turkish politician, economist and engineer. He is the founder and chairman of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA Party). Babacan, who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Economy of Turkey for 13 years between 2002 and 2015, served as the 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 26th Member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (MP). He served as a member of parliament from Ankara for a period.

In 2001, he became a founding member of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). In the 58th and 59th governments, he served as the state minister responsible for economy. In the 60th government, he served as foreign minister until May 1, 2009. Between 2005 and 2009, he served as chief negotiator, the position in which negotiations on Turkey's full membership to the European Union were conducted. On May 1, 2009, he was appointed deputy prime minister in a cabinet reshuffle. In the 61st and 62nd governments, he served as deputy prime minister.

During his ministry, Babacan took on the task of managing the economic reform program supported by billions of dollars of IMF loans; The Turkish economy has made a significant recovery after two serious economic crises.

He was among the founders of the Democracy and Progress Party, which was established on March 9, 2020, and was unanimously elected as the chairman of the party. On December 29, 2020, at the Grand Congress of his party, Ali Babacan, who was only a single candidate, was re-elected as chairman by receiving 515 delegate votes out of 523 delegates. The party has decided to participate in the 2023 general elections, which it will enter for the first time, with a joint list. 25 candidate places were reserved for DEVA from the CHP (RPP) lists and 1 candidate from the Good Party lists. As a result of the elections, 15 candidate MPs were elected. Ali Babacan became the Vice Presidential candidate of the Nation Alliance (MİLLET), but Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu could not take a position in the cabinet because he lost the elections in the second round with 47.8% of the votes.

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Category:Industrial engineers
Category:Living people
Category:1967 births
Category:Turkish Muslims
Category:Turkish politicians