Hüsamettin Cindoruk

Hüsamettin Cindoruk
President of Turkey Acting
In office 17 April 1993 – 16 May 1993
Prime Minister	Süleyman Demirel
Preceded by	Turgut Özal
Succeeded by	Süleyman Demirel
Speaker of the Grand National Assembly
In office 16 November 1991 – 1 October 1995
Preceded by	İsmet Kaya Erdem
Succeeded by	İsmet Sezgin
Member of the Grand National Assembly
In office 14 November 1991 – 24 December 1995
Constituency	Eskişehir (1991)
In office 24 November 1983 – 16 October 1987
Constituency	Samsun (1986)
Personal details
Born	(1933-06-08) 8 June 1933 İzmir, Turkey
Spouse	Dilek Cindoruk
Children	3

Ahmet Hüsamettin Cindoruk (born 8 June 1933) is a Turkish politician and the 17th Speaker of the Parliament of Turkey between 1991 and 1995. He was also the acting president of Turkey in 1993 and the leader of two political parties, notably of the True Path Party.

Early life and education

He was born in 1933 in İzmir to Turkish Cretan parents. He did all his studies in Ankara, graduated from the prestigious TED Ankara College and attended the University of Ankara, earning a degree in 1955 from the Law School. Following his graduation, he started exercising the lawyer's profession.

Professional career

He rose to national attention at a relatively young age when, after the 1960 Turkish coup d'état, he became part of the defence team for the imprisoned, and later executed ex-Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and other Democratic Party notables. Despite the final verdict in the case, the one-year-long desperate efforts by the defence team gained widespread respect across Turkey.

Political career

After the restoration of the civilian rule, he joined the Justice Party and two military coups later, after the 1980 military coup in Turkey, he became in 1985 the Secretary General of the True Path Party, a continuation of the Justice Party in the forced absence from politics of its leader Süleyman Demirel.

He handed over the party leadership to Demirel after his return to politics and with the Democratic Party's election victory in 1991, became the 17th Speaker of the Parliament between 1991 and 1995. As such he had a strong impact when the Parliament voted to lift the immunity of the several pro-Kurdish parliamentarians of the People's Labor Party (HEP). He defended the MPs freedom of speech and was offended by the wording of the prosecutor who argued militants of the out-lawed Kurdistan Workers' Party had taken refuge in the parliaments building. Cindoruk therefor refused to send the petition to lift the immunity to the parliaments Justice and Constitutional Commission and only his deputy Yılmaz Hocaoğlu sent it on in May 1992. In 1994, the immunity of seven MPs instead of the twenty-two the prosecutor demanded, were lifted. After Süleyman Demirel's election to the Presidency of the Republic vacated by Turgut Özal's death in 1993, he could have become the Prime Minister if he had not opted for a time to remain in his seat, thus opening the way for Tansu Çiller. When he eventually pushed his candidacy forward, Tansu Çiller had gained sufficient momentum within the party. He resigned from the Speaker's position in early 1995 and launched his own political movement around Party for a Democratic Turkey (DTP), but it did not register successful results in the general elections of 1996. Nevertheless, Cindoruk and his party took part in the government formed by Mesut Yılmaz during that electoral term and after bad results also in the elections of 1999, he quit the chairmanship of the party and left active politics. After years at 2009 he became the leader of Democrat Party and after several months he united Democratic Party and Motherland Party.

Personal life

Hüsamettin Cindoruk is married and has three children.

Bibliography

• Biyografi.net – Biography of Hüsamettin Cindoruk (in Turkish)