Bülent Turan

Bülent Turan — Biography

Bülent Turan is a lawyer turned politician who served the AK Party as a member of parliament and parliamentary group deputy chair before being appointed Deputy Minister of Interior on 22 June 2023. He sat in the Turkish Grand National Assembly in the 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th terms.

Born in Lapseki, Turan boarded at Kartal Anadolu Imam Hatip High School, earned his law degree at Eastern Mediterranean University and then a master's degree in labor economics and industrial relations at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University. During his school and university years he held leadership roles in civil society groups and student organizations; he later founded and ran the Turan Law Office and sat on the board of the Lawyers' Association.

He entered politics in the AK Party as deputy chair of its Istanbul youth branches from 2002 to 2006, then served two terms as Istanbul deputy provincial chair for organization. In 2011 he was elected an Istanbul deputy, worked on the Justice and Human Rights committees, joined the group executive board and served as deputy secretary-general. In 2015 he returned to parliament as a deputy for Çanakkale, became AK Party group deputy chair and was elected to that post a second time on 14 November 2017. He is married with three sons and speaks good English.