Temel Karamollaoğlu

Temel Karamollaoğlu
Leader of the Felicity Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 30 October 2016
Preceded by	Mustafa Kamalak
Member of the Grand National Assembly
In office 8 January 1996 – 3 November 2002
In office 5 June 1977 – 12 September 1980
Constituency	Sivas
Mayor of Sivas
In office 26 March 1989 – 1995
Preceded by	Bekir Timurboğa
Succeeded by	Osman Seçilmiş
Personal details
Born	(1941-09-20) 20 September 1941 (age 80) Kahramanmaraş, Turkey
Nationality	Turkish
Political party	Current: Felicity Party Previous: Virtue Party Welfare Party National Salvation Party
Spouse(s)	Ayşe Yasemin Karamollaoğlu ​ ​ (m. 1965)​
Children	5
Alma mater	University of Manchester
Profession	Politician

Temel Karamollaoğlu (born 20 September 1941) is a Turkish politician who is currently the leader of the Felicity Party (SP) since 2016. A prominent Islamist, Karamollaoğlu was the Mayor of Sivas from 1989 to 1995 and served twice as a Member of Parliament for Sivas from 1977 to 1980 and from 1996 to 2002.^[1]

Early life and career[]

Temel Karamollaoğlu, originally from Gürün, a district of Sivas, was born on June 7 1941 in Kahramanmaraş as one of the seven children of Üzeyir and Münire Karamollaoğlu couple. After completing his primary and secondary education in various provinces due to his father's duty as a teacher, he graduated from Manchester University Science and Technology Institute textile technology department in 1964, where he went on a scholarship in the 1960s. He completed his master's degree at the same university in 1967. In the same year he returned to Turkey and began working as a project engineer. In 1967, he worked as a specialist in the State Planning Organization. Between 1967 and 1972, he worked as a textile sector specialist at DPT. Karamollaoğlu, who worked in the private sector for two years after his military service, served as the Incentive and Implementation General Manager of the Ministry of Industry and Technology in 1975. Karamollaoğlu, who speaks fluent English, has been married since 1965 and has 5 children.

Political life[]

In 1977, he was elected as a deputy of Sivas from the National Salvation Party and he was, one year later, elected as a member of the party general assembly in 1978.

After the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, he remained out of active politics until the 1987 Turkish constitutional referendum. In the 1980s, he worked as a private consultant for a while and then held administrative positions in a textile company.

He entered the parliament after the 1995 Turkish general election as a deputy of Sivas of the Welfare Party. During this period, he served as a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. At the same time, he was elected as the Welfare Party group vice president. He continued this duty until the Welfare Party was shut down.

Later, he joined the Virtue Party after the Welfare Party was dissolved by the Constitutional Court. He was re-elected as a deputy of Sivas in the 1999 Turkish general election. At the Felicity Party (SP) congress held in May 2000, he was elected as a member of the general administrative board and was appointed as the vice president responsible for foreign affairs.

Karamollaoğlu was appointed as leader of the Felicity Party in 2016.

References[]