Resume

I was born in 1975 in Bayburt, Turkey. In 1976, together with my family, I moved to Cologne, Germany. After having attended high school in the same city, I have graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Cologne. Furthermore, I have received an equivalency diploma from the Faculty of Law of İzmir 9 Eylül University. I am married and the father of three children.

Since 1987, I have actively participated in civil society work abroad. I was in charge of different positions in the Islamic Community Milli Görüş (IGMG). Between 2011 and 2014, I worked as the Vice Chairman and later on as the Secretary-General of IGMG, thereby leading crucial works and studies focusing on the Muslim population living in Europe.

I have contributed to the works and studies concerning, inter alia, issues of Turkish and Muslim people in European countries, freedom of religion, discrimination, concerns of Turkish citizens living abroad, minorities, foreigners and citizenship law, migration and diaspora studies and furthermore, cultural, educational and religious education abroad. In addition, I have politically and judicially litigated and coordinated hundreds of cases with regard to rights of migrants and minorities, as well as Islamophobia in Europe.

Many years, I was the chief editor of ‘Perspektif’, a journal on current affairs and opinion and the broadcast executive of ‘Sabah Ülkesi’, a journal on culture, art and philosophy. I did various studies on the increase of Turkish publications in a way to foster the maintenance of the language, culture and identities of the Turkish population living abroad. Hereby, I had the pleasure to carry out many scientific and cultural projects.

I was also a Member of the ‘Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB) Turks Abroad Advisory Board’ and Founding President of the Federation Against Injustice and Racism. Besides, I worked as Founding Manager of a communication agency and a publishing house. Since 2015 I am the Chairman of the Executive Board of the Migration Research Foundation (GAV) in Ankara.

In the general elections in Turkey on June 7th and November 1st 2015, I was elected as AK Parti Deputy for Istanbul. At AK Parti’s 5th Ordinary Congress on 12th September 2015, I took on the task as member of the Central Disciplinary Committee. Furthermore, in the first two years of the 26th legislative term, I chaired the Parliament’s Human Rights Inquiry Committee and between December 2017 and June 2018 I was a member of the Parliamentary Committee on the Constitution and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). On June 24th 2018, I was reelected as AK Parti Deputy for Istanbul. On August 18th 2018, I became a member of the Central Decision and Executive Board (MKYK).

During the 27th legislative term, I served as a member of the EU Harmonization Committee, Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). At the same time, I was also the Chair of the Turkey-Austria Parliamentary Friendship Group. The entrusted tasks ended with my resignation from MKYK on October 28th 2019 and Ak Parti on October 30th 2019.

I have joined DEVA Party on March 9 2020 as a founding member and I serve as Deputy Chairperson for Law and Justice Affairs of the Party.