İhsanoğlu: I Observe with Acknowledgement

After being  selected as the president candidate of Turkey’s main opposition parties, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu spoke to Turkey’s Anatolian News Agency (AA). 

İhsanoğlu released a statement, reminding that Turkey’s people would elect its president for the first time. 

“Such consensus in this period is a significant turning point for Turkey’s democratization process,” he added. 

He also said that he hailed CHP and MHP’s consensus with respect and acknowledgement. 

Who is Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu? 

Ihsanoğlu was born in 1943 into a Turkish family in Cairo, Egypt. He studied science at the Ain Shams University, where he received his BSc in 1966. He remained in Cairo and obtained his MSc in 1970 from Al-Azhar University. 

Ihsanoğlu received his PhD from the Faculty of Science at the Ankara University in 1974. İhsanoğlu's academic work has focused on the history of scientific activity and institutions of learning within Islam, cultural exchanges between Islam and the West, the relationship between science and religion, and the development of science in its socio-cultural environment.

İhsanoğlu was the founder of the Department of History of Science at the Faculty of Letters of Istanbul University, and he remained the chairman of that department between 1984 and 2003. He was also a lecturer and a visiting professor at various universities, including Ankara University, the University of Exeter, United Kingdom (1975–1977), Inönü University (1970–1980), the University of Malatya (1978–1980), and Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Germany (2003).

After taking the office as the ninth Secretary General of the OIC in January 2005, İhsanoğlu coordinated the drafting and implementation of a reform program for the OIC aiming to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the 57-member Organization. 

Recipient of “Medal of Distinguished State Service” from Turkey, İhsanoğlu is married with 3 children. (BK/BM)

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