Who is Governing Turkey?

Journalist  Mehmet Halis İş and sociologist Mehmet Bedirhanoğlu have carried out a survey of the ministers in government in Turkey between 1920 and 2009.

The study looks at the five delegations of ministers from 1920 to 1923, and then 60 ensuing governments. A total of 846 ministers were considered in order to analyse characteristics of those governing Turkey.

The two researchers said that one aim was also to see whether the ruling class represented the people.

The ministers were surveyed for age, gender, marital status, number of children, education level, professions, countries of education, place of birth, knowledge of foreign languages and number of ministerial posts held.

Ministers are male

The most obvious problem with the representativeness of the ministers is that the great majority of them, 832 of 846, have been men. There have been only 14 female ministers.

733 of hte 846, that is 86.5 percent, have been married. When looking at the numbers of children, the researchers were unable to obtain information on 77 ministers. Of the remaining 690 ministers, 44 percent had 2 children. 21.4 percent had three, 15.1 percent had one child. 47 ministers had no children, 61 had 4, and 30 and five or more.

Most university graduates

As for the education level of ministers, 84 percent of them have been university graduates. 7.6 percent are graduates of miltary schools or academies, while 2.2 have been highschool graduates.

66 ministers have been professors. 25 ministers were educated in private high schools, 8 of them in Robert College and 5 in Galatasaray Highschool, both in Istanbul.

23.6 percent of ministers have been lawyers, 12.7 percent political scientists, 11.9 engineers, 5.7 percent doctors, 5.7 percent professional soldiers and 5.1 percent economists.

While the number of ministers with a military background has gone down over time, the rate of lawyers and political scientists has remained stable.

The universities sending most ministers to cabinet are in Ankara and Istanbul. 27 ministers have been to university abroad.

Place of birth

The only provinces that have not had a minister in cabinet are Bingöl and Iğdır. According to place of birth, the provinces that have sent most ministers to cabinet are Istanbul, Izmir, Trabzon, Ankara, Bursa and Sivas.

Following Istanbul is actually the number of ministers who were born outside of Turkey. Around half of them were born in Greece, followed by ministers born in the Balkans and Caucasus.

Foreign languages

109 ministers knew no foreign language, while 85.8 percent know at least one. 41.2 percent know two or more foreign languages.

The age of ministers since the 1960s has shown a slight decrease.

25 ministers died in traffic accidents or from cancer or similar illnesses. One minister (Namik Gedik) committed suicide, three were executed (Adnan Menderes, Hasan Polatkan, Fatih Rüştü Zorlu), 3 died of heart attacks, and two were killed. (EZÖ/AG)