Ayşe Nur Bahçekapılı

Ayşe Nur Bahçekapılı (born 26 November 1954) is a Turkish politician from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) who currently serves as a Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly since 24 November 2015. She previously served in the same position between 2 July and 23 June 2015. She has been a Member of Parliament for İstanbul's second electoral district since 22 July 2007, having first been elected in the 2007 general election and re-elected in the 2011, June 2015 and November 2015 general elections.

Early life and career

Ayşe Nur Bahçekapılı was born on 26 November 1954 in the district of Maçka, Trabzon Province. She graduated from İstanbul University Faculty of Law and later become a freelance lawyer. She served as a member of the executive board of the İstanbul Bars Association and also as their General Secretary. She has also been a member of the executive board for the Turkish Bars Association. She was a member of the Contemporary Jurists Association and also served as the İstanbul representative of the Social Democrat Action Platform Women's legal education workshop.^[1]

Political career

Originally active in Social democratic politics, she served as the President of the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) İstanbul Women's Commission before switching allegiances to the right-wing conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP). She was elected as a Member of Parliament for İstanbul's second electoral district in the 2007 general election and was re-elected in the 2011, June 2015 and November 2015 general elections. In the 23rd and 24th Parliaments (2007 to 2015), she served as the President of the Turkish-Cuban inter-parliamentary friendship group.^[2]

Deputy Speaker

Bahçekapılı first became a Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly on 2 July 2013, halfway through the course of the 24th Parliament. She served until the end of the parliamentary term on 23 June 2015. Serving under Speaker Cemil Çiçek, she served alongside AKP colleague Sadık Yakut, the Republican People's Party (CHP) MP Güldal Mumcu and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) MP Meral Akşener.

She was appointed as a Deputy Speaker for a second time on 24 November 2015, serving in the 26th Parliament. Serving under Speaker İsmail Kahraman, she serves alongside AKP colleague Ahmet Aydın, the CHP MP Akif Hamzaçebi and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP Pervin Buldan.

Controversy

During a heated debate in early 2015 about a heavily controversial domestic security law that many opposition MPs argued was unconstitutional and encroached on civil liberties, Bahçekapılı openly supported the law from the Speaker's chair despite having to remain impartial as the presiding officer of the parliamentary proceedings at the time. Her breach of parliamentary code caused CHP MP Engin Altay, a CHP parliamentary group leader, to call her a thug and 'corrupt', claiming that she was 'not a deputy speaker in our eyes' and calling on her to change her 'banditry and corrupt ways'.^[3] Bahçekapılı responded sarcastically, saying 'as if I cared! You are the thug and you are corrupt.'^[4]

See also

• Speaker of the Grand National Assembly

References

External links

• MP profile at the Grand National Assembly website
• Collection of all relevant news items at Haberler.com