Vural Arıkan (1929–3 August 1993) was a Turkish economist, lawyer and politician who was the minister of finance for one year from 1983 to 1984. He established a now-defunct political party, Citizen's Party.
Vural Arıkan | |
|---|---|
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 13 December 1983 – 26 October 1984 | |
| President | Kenan Evren |
| Prime Minister | Turgut Özal |
| Preceded by | Adnan Başer Kafaoğlu |
| Succeeded by | Ahmet Kurtcebe Alptemoçin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1929 Aydın, Turkey |
| Died | 3 August 1993 (aged 63–64) |
| Nationality | Turk |
| Political party |
|
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | Ankara University |
Early life and education
editArıkan was born in Aydın in 1929.[1] He had two sisters, Türkan Arıkan and Saadet Özkal.[1] The latter was an engineer and the former was a member of the Parliament.[1]
Arıkan completed his secondary education at Trabzon High School in 1949.[2] He graduated from the Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University in 1953.[2] He later received a degree in law from the same university.[2]
Career
editArıkan joined the General Directorate of Treasury in 1953.[3] He began to work as an assistant financial inspector in 1953.[2] He was the assistant accounting specialist from 1953 to 1956 and the accounting specialist between 9 November 1956 and 1959 at the Ministry of Finance.[2][3] He left the ministry on 28 November 1959 and worked as a lawyer.[2]
Arıkan started his political career in 1983 when he was involved in the establishment of the Motherland Party.[1] Businessman Şarık Tara introduced him to the party.[4] The same year Arıkan won a seat for the Motherland Party from İzmir in the general election and became a member of the Parliament during the 17th term.[1] He was appointed minister of finance to the cabinet led by Prime Minister Turgut Özal on 13 December 1983.[1] He replaced Adnan Başer Kafaoğlu in the post.[3] Arıkan was described by the Turkish press as one of two liberal cabinet members.[5] The other one was Deputy Prime Minister Kaya Erdem.[5] Arıkan's tenure ended on 26 October 1984 when he was removed from office upon the request of Kenan Evren, military president.[1] His successor was Ahmet Kurtcebe Alptemoçin.[3]
In May 1985 Arıkan left the Motherland Party.[6] On 19 March 1986 he established a political party named Citizen's Party.[1] It dissolved itself on 2 December 1986, and Arıkan joined the True Path Party.[7]
Controversy
editIn 1994 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed that Vural Arıkan was drunk when he was serving at the Parliament.[8] Türkan Arıkan, sister of Vural Arıkan, sued him for compensation in 2001 and won the case in January 2004.[8] She donated the 5 billion Turkish lira compensation to the Turkish army and Turkish Education Foundation.[8]
Personal life and death
editArıkan was married and had one child.[3] He had a good command of French and German.[2] He died on 3 August 1993.[1][3]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Vural Arıkan. Eski Maliye Bakanı". biyografi.net (in Turkish). Retrieved 1 March 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Vural T. Arıkan" (in Turkish). Hesap Uzmanları Derneği. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f "Vural Arıkan Kimdir? Bakan, Nereli, Eşi, Biyografi" (in Turkish). Kimoneo. 12 January 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
- ^ Sefa Salih Aydemir (2020). "Turgut Özal and Anavatan Partisi (The Motherland Party)". In Ozkan Akman; Tahir Gur (eds.). Social, Political, Economic and Other Developments Occurred in Turkey between the Years of 1980-2000. Konya: ISRES. p. 64. ISBN 978-605-69854-9-2.
- ^ a b Feroz Ahmad (April 1985). "The Transition to Democracy in Turkey". Third World Quarterly. 7 (2): 219. JSTOR 3991599.
- ^ "News". Milliyet. 17 May 1985. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
- ^ Birol Ali Yeşilada (Winter 1988). "Problems of Political Development in the Third Turkish Republic". Polity. 21 (2): 360. doi:10.2307/3234810. JSTOR 3234810. S2CID 153405110.
- ^ a b c Esma Çakır (23 May 2004). "Başbakan'dan aldığı tazminatı TSK'ya bağışladı". Hürriyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 1 March 2023.