Şükrü Saracoğlu

Şükrü Saraçoğlu
Prime Minister of Turkey
In office 9 July 1942 – 7 August 1946
President	İsmet İnönü
Preceded by	Refik Saydam
Succeeded by	Recep Peker
Personal details
Born	Mehmet Şükrü 1887 Ödemiş, Ottoman Empire
Died	27 December 1953 (aged 65–66) İstanbul, Turkey
Political party	Republican People's Party (CHP)
Alma mater	Mekteb-i Mülkiye
Religion	Islam

Mehmet Şükrü Saraçoğlu (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈʃycɾy saɾaˈdʒoːɫu]; 1887, Ödemiş – 27 December 1953, Istanbul) was a Turkish politician and the sixth Prime Minister of Turkey. He was also the chairman of Fenerbahçe S.K. for 16 years between 1934 and 1950, including holding that post concurrently with his time as prime minister from 1942 to 1946.

Biography

Şükrü Saracoğlu in his early days

Born in Ödemiş in the Ottoman Empire in 1887, Mehmet Şükrü was the son of Saraç (Lorimer) Mehmet Tevfik Usta who was of Albanian heritage. He completed the primary and middle school in Ödemiş, high school in the prestigious Izmir Ataturk Lisesi in Izmir and graduated from the School of Civil Service (Mekteb-i Mülkiye) halla in 1909. For a while, he worked as officer of attendance and performed as mathematics teacher in İzmir High School in Sultaniye. In 1915, he studied in the Academy of Political Sciences in Geneva, Switzerland, for the account of İzmir.

After the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22) (the Western Front of the larger Turkish War of Independence), Mehmet Şükrü returned to Turkey and fought in the War in the region of Kuşadası, Aydın, and Nazilli. He was elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey as an MP from İzmir in 1923. He was appointed as Minister of National Education in the cabinet of Prime Minister Fethi Okyar. He then presided over the Commission for Composite Population Exchange that would conduct the negotiations with the Greek government later on. He was appointed as the Minister of Finance in the cabinet formed by Prime Minister İsmet Pasha (İnönü). After resigning from the post, he was sent to the United States to complete some contacts about economic issues in 1931 and presided over the board going to the Paris Treaty of 1933 to solve the Ottoman public debt issue. In 1933, he reentered Cabinet as the Minister of Justice and performed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Celal Bayar.

After the 1934 Surname Law that required all Turkish citizens to adopt a surname, Mehmet Şükrü took on the surname "Saraçoğlu", meaning "son of Saraç", Saraç being the epithet of his father.

In the closing days to the World War II, he took place in the negotiations with the Soviet Union in Moscow for months.

Upon the death of Refik Saydam in 1942, he was assigned as the Prime Minister and resigned from this duty due to his illness. He was elected as the President of the Grand National Assembly in 1948 and remained in this position until 1950.

Saraçoğlu, who retired from political life in 1950, was fluent in French and English. He was married and had three children.

He died on 27 December 1953.

The home of the Turkish football club Fenerbahçe, Şükrü Saraçoğlu Stadium, is named after him.

See also

• 13th government of Turkey

References

• Biography, Biyografi.info (Turkish)