Kâmil Ocak

Kâmil Ocak — Biography

Mehmet Kâmil Ocak was born on 19 February 1914 in Gaziantep, the son of Mustafa Efendi, a former mayor of the city and a Mevlevi sheikh from Konya. After primary school in his hometown he attended Robert College in Istanbul, graduating from its commerce department in 1935, and around the same time represented Turkey as a basketball player at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Following three years at the Central Bank of Turkey in Istanbul and compulsory service as a reserve officer, he was appointed director general of the Gaziantep Weavers' Cooperative in 1940 and, from 1948, of the Gaziantep Pistachio Agricultural Cooperatives Union, a post he held until 1960. He entered politics in 1941 and, after chairing the Democrat Party's provincial administrative board and provincial branch, served as mayor of Gaziantep from 1955 to 1956, later becoming a member of parliament for Gaziantep and minister of state responsible for sport.

As minister he had a stadium and a sports hall built in Gaziantep, and his name still marks a sports hall, a sports high school and a sports complex in the city; the sports hall bearing his name reopened after renovation in December 2025. Married to Mübeccel Hanım, daughter of Fevzi Ocak, and father of two daughters and two sons, Ocak died in Ankara on 21 May 1969 and was buried in Gaziantep.