Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan confirmed a small but significant cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday with the surprise appointment of Akın Gürlek as new justice minister and Mustafa Çiftçi as head of the interior ministry, according to decrees published in the Official Gazette of Turkey on 11 February.
Gürlek, until now chief prosecutor in Istanbul, replaces Yılmaz Tunç in the post he had held since June 2023 after having expressly requested to be relieved of his duties. Meanwhile, Çiftçi – who had served as governor of Erzurum since 2023 – replaces Ali Yerlikaya at the head of the Interior Ministry. The new appointments were published in the Official Gazette with the signature of President Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkish daily Hürriyet reported.
The appointments were made in accordance with Articles 104 and 106 of the Turkish Constitution. In a message posted on social media, Yerlikaya thanked Erdoğan “for his great support during my tenure as minister” confirming the new appointment of Çiftçi, whom he congratulated and wished luck in office. “I wholeheartedly thank each and every member of our Interior Ministry family who work tirelessly for the peace and security of our country. May God protect you,” he concluded.
Tunç also issued a statement in which he recalled his political career since he was one of the founding members of the AKP party in 2001 until his appointment as Justice Minister on 4 June 2023, also wishing his successor success: “During our 23 years in government, under the leadership of our President, we had the honour of supporting the reforms carried out to achieve a high level of democracy in our country and to strengthen the principle of the rule of law,” he wrote.
Who are Akın Gürlek and Mustafa Çiftçi?
The new Turkish Minister of Justice, Akın Gürlek, born in 1982 in Nevşehir, is a jurist and bureaucrat who graduated from Marmara University’s Faculty of Law. After holding high positions as a judge, president of criminal courts and deputy justice minister, he was appointed Istanbul’s chief public prosecutor on 8 October 2024. He is married and has one son.
Turkey’s now appointed Interior Minister, Mustafa Çiftçi, born in 1970, is a Turkish bureaucrat from Çumra (Konya). After seven years of training in public administration, he served for a long time as governor and deputy governor, his last post being that of governor of Erzurum, which he held since 9 August 2023. He is married with three children, speaks English and Arabic, and holds a master’s degree in public administration.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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