According to te Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s news; Turkish Prime Minister Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan renominated on Thursday current Istanbul mayor Mr. Kadir Topbaş for upcoming local elections in March 2014…
Turkish Prime Minister Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan renominated on Thursday current Istanbul mayor Mr. Kadir Topbaş for upcoming local elections in March 2014.
Announcing twenty-one mayor candidates for the coming elections in Turkey’s Istanbul, Mr. Erdogan stated that Kadir Topbas, mayor of Istanbul since 2004, will run for the municipal office for the third consecutive time.
Mr. Erdoğan said there was no need to comment on Topbaş’s candidacy since “his work is apparent,” in a meeting where he announced 20 other provinces’ candidates along with Istanbul on Dec. 5. Mr. Topbaş will run for the post for the third time. He was first elected mayor in 2004.
The crowd in Istanbul’s Haliç Congress Center greeted Mr. Topbaş when his name was announced. The congress center, which has the capacity to host up to 10,000, was fully loaded from the morning hours forward.
In the latest 2009 local elections, the overall winner was the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, despite losing votes compared to the 2004 elections.
Between 1994 and 1998, Mr. Topbas served as architectural adviser to Istanbul mayor. Following his stint as Istanbul’s architectural adviser, Topbas was elected the Virtue Party’s candidate for mayor of the Beyoglu district of the province in 1999.
Before becoming Istanbul mayor in 2004, Mr. Topbas attempted a political career by twice standing for the parliament on the first occasion for the National Salvation Party and then for its successor, the Welfare Party. Following the ban on the Welfare Party and its successor, the Virtue Party, Mr. Erdogan formed the conservative Justice and Development Party in 2001 from the remnants of his moderate faction, before going on to become Prime Minister in 2003.
He received a second term in the 2009 local elections, albeit having faced a close challenge from a left of centre opponent.
In 2007, Topbas became co-president of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).
Mr. Topbas served also as President of Union of Municipalities of Turkey and is still the Chairman of United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities (UNACLA).
Mr. Topbaş was born in 1945 in the Black Sea province Artvin, moving with his family to Istanbul when he was three months old. He graduated from the Marmara University Faculty of Theology in 1972 and Mimar Sinan University’s Department of Architecture in 1974. He then obtained a Ph. D in architectural history at Istanbul University, going on to work as a freelance architect for several years. Between 1994 and 1998, he served as the architectural adviser to the then-Istanbul Mayor and now-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, overseeing the restoration of a number of historic buildings in the city and was also appointed to act as deputy director of the Ministry of Culture’s Heritage Protection and Monuments committee at the time.
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