By Baris Gundogan
ANKARA
Five new ministers joined the Turkish Cabinet on Wednesday in a reshuffle of government posts.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced the changes following an unscheduled meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Palace in Ankara.
Three ministers were promoted to deputy prime minister positions -- Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, Defense Minister Fikri Isik and Health Minister Recep Akdag.
Hakan Cavusoglu, a lawmaker from the northwestern province of Bursa, was also appointed as a deputy prime minister without having previously held a Cabinet post while Mehmet Simsek retained his position as one of five deputies to Yildirim.
The five ministerial newcomers included Julide Sarieroglu, who became labor and social security minister and the second female Cabinet member.
Also appointed were Abdulhamit Gul, who was assigned the Justice Ministry portfolio; Osman Askin Bak, who became youth and sports minister; new Health Minister Ahmet Demircan; and Ahmet Esref Fakibaba, appointed to the Food, Agriculture and Livestock Ministry.
Six existing ministers were reappointed, meaning a total of 11 changes in the 27-member Cabinet.
The reshuffle followed April’s constitutional referendum that allowed Erdogan to resume his official ties to the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party.
Erdogan led the AK Party for 13 years from 2001 but had to step aside when he became president in August 2014, due to a legal requirement for presidents to be politically neutral.
New ministers
That requirement was removed by April’s vote.
The new Labour and Social Security Minister Sarieroglu, from Adana province in southern Turkey, was born in 1979.
She studied labor economics and industrial relations at Gazi University, Ankara. She has authored several books on labor relations and was previously an executive member of the AK Party’s women's branch.
Cavusoglu, who was born in Greece’s Turkish community in 1972, studied law at Ankara University. He speaks Greek, English and Arabic.
Gul, a deputy from the southeastern province of Gaziantep, is also an Ankara University law graduate and is a member of the AK Party’s central executive.
Bak, a lawmaker from Istanbul, was born in 1966. He studied engineering at Istanbul Technical University and has a business and industrial engineering masters from Nottingham University in the U.K.
The new youth and sports minister speaks English, German and Persian.
Health Minister Ahmet Demircan was born in the Black Sea province of Samsun in 1954. He studied medicine at Ataturk University, Erzurum, and speaks English and Arabic.
Fakibaba is another medical graduate from Ataturk University. He was born in Sanliurfa province in 1951 and served as mayor of Sanliurfa in southeast Turkey for two terms. Fakibaba speaks English.
Tugrul Turkes, Veysi Kaynak, Mehmet Muezzinoglu, Cagatay Kilic, Faruk Celik and Nabi Avci lost their ministerial posts.
The new Cabinet is as follows:
Prime Minister
Binali Yildirim
Deputy prime ministers
Bekir Bozdag (former justice minister)
Mehmet Simsek
Fikri Isik (former defense minister)
Recep Akdag (former health minister)
Hakan Cavusoglu
Other ministers
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu
Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul
Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci
Finance Minister Naci Agbal
Health Minister Ahmet Demircan
National Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli (former deputy PM)
European Union Minister Omer Celik
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak
Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya
Science, Industry and Technology Minister Faruk Ozlu
Labor and Social Security Minister Julide Sarieroglu
Environment and Urban Planning Minister Mehmet Ozhaseki
Youth and Sports Minister Osman Askin Bak
Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Ahmet Esref Fakibaba
Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci
Development Minister Lutfi Elvan
Culture and Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmus (former deputy PM)
National Education Minister Ismet Yilmaz
Forestry and Water Affairs Minister Veysel Eroglu
Transport, Maritime and Communication Minister Ahmet Arslan
