Necmettin Erbakan has passed away.
May God have mercy on him.
Necmettin Erbakan, the former prime minister and leader of the Felicity Party, has died.
Güven Hospital, where he had been receiving treatment for some time, announced that Erbakan passed away at 11:40.
Erbakan, whose Welfare Party came first in the 1995 elections, had taken the prime minister's seat with the coalition government they formed with the True Path Party.
Erbakan, who was elected chairman of the Felicity Party at the party's latest congress, was 85 years old.
After the funeral ceremony to be held at Fatih Mosque, Erbakan will be laid to rest on Tuesday.
Who is Erbakan
Erbakan was born on October 29, 1926, in Sinop.
His father was Mehmet Sabri Erbakan from the Kozanoğulları family, who had lived in the Kozan and Saimbeyli regions of Adana. Because his father, who was a chief criminal judge, served in many places, Erbakan spent his childhood in various cities. His mother was Kamer Hanım, the daughter of one of Sinop's well-known families.
Necmettin Erbakan began primary school at Kayseri Cumhuriyet Primary School, and because his father was appointed to Trabzon, he completed his primary education there as the top student in the school.
After completing his primary education in 1937, he began secondary school that same year at Istanbul Boys' High School.
He graduated first in his class from Istanbul Boys' High School in 1943.
In the summer of 1948, Erbakan graduated from the ITU Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and began working on July 1 of the same year as an assistant in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering's Engines Department.
During this three-year assistantship from 1948 to 1951, he prepared a qualification thesis that at the time was equivalent to a doctoral dissertation.
Although giving lectures in classrooms was within the authority of associate professors and professors, he was allowed to teach even though he was an assistant.
Because of his success in his qualification thesis, Erbakan was sent to Germany in 1951 by the university to conduct scientific research and improve his knowledge and experience at Aachen Technical University. There, he worked very successfully with Professor Schimit at the DVL research center, which conducted research for the German army.
During the 1.5 years he worked at Aachen Technical University, Erbakan prepared three theses, one of which was a doctoral dissertation, and received the title of "Doctor," which was recognized at German universities.
While conducting research for the German Ministry of Economics on reducing engine fuel consumption and preparing a report, Erbakan also prepared his associate professorship thesis. This thesis, which mathematically explained "how the injected fuel ignites in diesel engines," caused a great response in German scientific circles.
After the thesis was published in journals, he was invited to this factory by Prof., the general manager of Deutz engine factories, then the largest engine factory in Germany, to conduct research on the engines of Leopard tanks.
When he was asked to be included in the delegation assigned by the German Ministry of Economic Affairs to research factories in the Ruhr region, he had the opportunity to visit and examine all heavy industry factories in the Ruhr region for 15 days.
After the Second World War, Erbakan, the first Turkish scientist at German universities, returned to Istanbul in 1953 to take the associate professorship exam.
As a result of the exam, Necmettin Erbakan, who became Turkey's youngest associate professor at the age of 27, went back to the Deutz factories in Germany to conduct research.
There, for six months as the chief engineer of engine research, he took part in research work for the German army.
Returning to Istanbul Technical University in November 1953, Erbakan completed his military service between May 1954 and October 1955.
After six months of reserve officer training in Kağıthane, Istanbul, he served for six months as a second lieutenant and six months as a lieutenant in the maintenance and repair section of the engineering maintenance company in Halıcıoğlu, working on the maintenance and repair of machinery.
After completing his military service, Necmettin Erbakan returned to the university and in 1956 founded Gümüş Motor A.Ş. with 200 partners, which would manufacture Turkey's first domestic engine.
This idea of establishing such a factory had become much clearer to Erbakan when he saw the engines ordered by the Turkish Agricultural Equipment Institution during his work in Germany.
Upon returning home, he launched this effort.
And on July 1, 1956, he laid the foundation of the factory that operates today under the name Pancar Motor.
Mass production at the Gümüş Motor factory began on March 1, 1960.
At the Industrial Congress held in Ankara in 1960, Erbakan presented the products made by Gümüş Motor and put forward the idea that "the new goal is to produce automobiles in Turkey." This idea, which was well received by the military in power at the time, led Erbakan to produce the first domestic automobile, called the "DEVRIM AUTOMOBILE," at the Eskişehir Railways CER workshop.
The military administration toured the Gümüş Motor factory, became highly interested and enthusiastic, and as a result Erbakan gave an Industrial Conference to nearly 200 generals and senior officers.
Erbakan became a professor in 1965 and was appointed head of the Industrial Department of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Association in February 1966.
He later became Secretary General, then a member of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Association in May 1968, and Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Association in May 1969.
Necmettin Erbakan married in 1967.
When the necessary attention was not given to industry, he decided to enter politics.
Erbakan ran as an independent candidate from Konya in the 1969 elections and was elected to Parliament.
On January 24, 1970, Erbakan founded the National Order Party, the first party of National Outlook; in April 1971, under pressure from the revolutionary government, the National Order Party was closed.
Later, the National Salvation Party, founded on October 11, 1972, entered Parliament with 51 members after winning 48 seats in the 1973 elections and 3 senate seats with 12 percent of the vote under Erbakan's leadership.
After the MSP-CHP coalition formed in early 1974 was brought down, the chairman of the MSP, which also took part in the four-party coalition that was formed, again assumed the duties of deputy prime minister and head of the economic council.
Erbakan continued in this role in the three-party coalition formed after the June 5, 1977 elections, and thus the MSP led by him became a partner in government for a total of four years.
At the beginning of 1978, Necmettin Erbakan, who served as chairman of the MSP and remained in opposition until September 12, 1980, stayed away from politics until September 1987 due to the bans introduced by the September 12 coup.
Having regained his political rights through the referendum in September 1987, Erbakan was unanimously elected chairman at the congress of the Welfare Party, which had been founded on July 19, 1983. He was elected MP from Konya again in the October 20, 1991 elections.
He entered Parliament again after being elected MP from Konya in the 1995 general elections.
In these elections, the Welfare Party came first with 21.7 percent.
He was then given the task of forming the government on June 28 and became Turkey's Prime Minister with a vote of confidence on July 7.
Among many important achievements that won public support during the coalition government, it is also significant that he pioneered cooperation among the 8 developing countries internationally and, with great effort, established the D-8 (Developing-8) formation in a short period of one year.
After the Welfare Party, of which he was chairman, was shut down in February 1998, Erbakan became subject to a five-year political ban, and on May 11, 2003, he was elected chairman of the Felicity Party.
He was married and had 3 children.
