Prime Minister Appoints Two New Ministers After Resignations

- Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu appointed two new members of the interim government on Sept. 22, following the resignations of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) ministers Müslüm Doğan and Ali Haydar Konca earlier that day.

Beril Dedeoğlu was appointed EU minister while Mustafa Cüneyd Düzyol was named as minister of development, a written statement from the prime minister’s office said.

She felt it her duty to respond to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s offer to join the cabinet, Anadolu Agency quoted Dedeoğlu saying after her assignment.

“If my name is selected to serve the needs of the country during its transition process, I do not think that I have the luxury of objecting to that” she said.

“I, as a person who believes in doing what should be done for the country, accepted the duty with pleasure” Dedeoğlu noted.

Born in 1961 in Ankara, Dedeoğlu is head of the department of international relations at Galatasaray University and has focused on the EU, Turkish foreign policy and international security in her academic research.

Düzyol has been serving as undersecretary at the development ministry since 2014. He graduated from the civil engineering deportment of the Middle East Technical University.

With only weeks to go to the Nov. 1 snap election, with two ministers from the HDP have resigned from their posts in a cabinet led by major partner of the interim government, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), in a sign of growing tension over the ongoing conflict between Turkey’s security forces and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Ministers from the HDP could resign, as they have the right to resign, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, but he questioned the text the minister’s read in their announcement. “Who has prepared those texts?” he asked.

Erdoğan said Doğan and Konca did not express the accusations stated at their press conference during the cabinet meeting held the same day.

“They try to smear presidency... These are very, very ugly statements” he said.

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