Hikmet Sami Türk

Hikmet Sami Türk
Minister of National Defence of Turkey
In office 11 January 1999 – 28 May 1999
Preceded by	İsmet Sezgin
Succeeded by	Sabahattin Çakmakoğlu
Personal details
Born	1935 Of, Trabzon, Turkey
Nationality	Turkish
Political party	Democratic Left Party (1995 - 2002)

Hikmet Sami Türk (born 1935 in Of, Trabzon^[1]) is a Turkish academic and politician. He was at the faculty of law of Ankara University from 1967 until 1995. Elected to parliament from 1995 to 2002 for the Democratic Left Party, he was Minister of Defence and Minister of Justice. He joined the faculty of Bilkent University in 2005. In 2009 he survived an attempt by Dev-Sol to assassinate him at Bilkent University, when a suicide-bomber's bomb failed to detonate.

Biography

Türk graduated from the Kabataş Erkek Lisesi, and then from Istanbul University's Law Faculty in 1958.^[1] He obtained a doctorate from the University of Cologne in 1964. Returning to Turkey he completed his military service and then joined the faculty of Ankara University in 1967, becoming a full professor in the law faculty in 1978, and teaching there until 1995.^[1]

In the 1995 and 1999 elections he was elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the Democratic Left Party. Under Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz he was Minister of State for Human Rights in 1997 and Minister of Defence in 1999 (January to May), and then Minister of Justice under Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit. He left parliament in 2002, as in the 2002 elections his party failed to reach the 10% threshold needed to enter parliament.^[1]

He joined the law faculty of Bilkent University in 2005.^[2] In 2009 he survived an attempt by Dev-Sol to assassinate him at Bilkent University, when a suicide-bomber's bomb failed to detonate.^[3]

References

1. kimkimdir.gen.tr, Prof. Dr. Hikmet Sami Türk (1935 - .... )
2. Bilkent University Prof. Dr. Hikmet Sami Türk
3. Today's Zaman, 30 April 2009, Former justice minister escapes assassination attempt