Numan Kurtulmuş

Numan Kurtulmuş MP Ph.D.
Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
Incumbent
Assumed office 29 August 2014
Prime Minister	Ahmet Davutoğlu
Serving with	Bülent Arınç (2014-2015) Ali Babacan (2014-2015) Cevdet Yılmaz (2015) Yalçın Akdoğan Tuğrul Türkeş Lütfi Elvan Mehmet Şimşek
Preceded by	Emrullah İşler
Deputy leader of the Justice and Development Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 04 September 2012
Leader	Ahmet Davutoğlu (2014-present) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (2001-2014)
Member of the Grand National Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 June 2015
Constituency	Ordu (June 2015, Nov 2015)
Leader of the People's Voice Party
In office 1 November 2010 – 19 September 2012
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Leader of the Felicity Party
In office 26 October 2008 – 17 October 2010
Preceded by	Recai Kutan
Succeeded by	Necmettin Erbakan
Personal details
Born	(1959-03-23) March 23, 1959 Ünye, Ordu Province, Turkey
Nationality	Turkish
Political party	FP SP HAS Parti AKP
Spouse(s)	Sevgi Kurtulmuş
Alma mater	Istanbul University
Cabinet	62nd, 63rd, 64th
Religion	Sunni Islam
Website	numankurtulmus.com.tr/

Prof. Dr. Numan Kurtulmuş (born 1959) is a Turkish politician. He has been Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey since 2014.

Personal life

Kurtulmuş was born in Ünye district of Ordu Province. His grandfather was a major in the Turkish army who fought in the Turkish War of Independence. He is of Georgian descent by his grandmother. Kurtulmuş is married, and is a father of three children. His wife Sevgi Kurtulmuş is an academician. He is fluent in English and his favorite football team is Fenerbahçe.

Academic career

Kurtulmus received his bachelor’s and master’s degree at Istanbul University's School of Business Administration. He had been at Cornell University as a visiting researcher, during his dissertation work at Istanbul University. Kurtulmus obtained his PhD in economics in 1992. He became Associate Professor in 1994 at Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics.

He has authored numerous articles and two books, entitled “Post-Industrial Transformation” and “The Japanese Human Resource Management”. He lectured at the Istanbul University's School of Economics on Social Policy, Labor Economics and Human Resources Management. He was promoted to the rank of professorship in 2004.

Political career

In 1998, Kurtulmuş became Istanbul provincial head of the Virtue Party (FP) and a member of the party’s General Administrative Board. Later he served as Istanbul Provincial head of Virtue Party and deputy chair.

Kurtulmuş was elected to the chair of the Felicity Party (SP) at the Third Ordinary Congress of the Party on 26 October 2008. After a rift developed with the followers of former FP leader and former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, signatures of a majority of the delegates asked for renewal of the congress and the sacking of Kurtulmuş. Refusing this, the matter ended up in court, and the court ruled that party administration should be transferred from his leadership to a board of trustees. After the ruling he had to resign from his position on 1 October 2010.

On November 1, 2010, Kurtulmuş founded a new party, the People's Voice Party (Halkın Sesi Partisi), of which he was elected leader on November 28, 2010. In September 2012, two-year-old conservative-oriented People's Voice Party (HSP) dissolved itself and joined the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) with a majority of its delegates’ votes.