Hikmet Çetin
Hikmet Çetin is a Turkish retired politician of Kurdish origin. He held various national posts during his career, including Foreign Affairs Minister and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly. In November 2003, he was appointed NATO's inaugural Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan.
Early life
He was born in Lice, a town in the southeastern Diyarbakır Province. After completing primary school in his hometown and high school in Ankara, he graduated in 1960 with a B.A. degree in Economics and Finance from Ankara University's School of Political Sciences.After completing his education, Hikmet Çetin joined the State Planning Organization. Shortly after, he was sent abroad and also to the United States, where he received his M.A. in "Economics of development" from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA. In 1968, he did research work on "Planning models" at the Stanford University, California, USA. After returning home, he completed his military service in 1970 and worked as the head of Economics Planning Department at the DPT until 1977. During this time, he was a part-time lecturer at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara.
Political career
Hikmet Çetin stepped into politics in the 1977 general elections as deputy of Istanbul from the Republican People's Party. Between 1978 and 1979, he served as Minister of State and later as Deputy Prime Minister in the cabinet of the Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit. Following the 1980 military coup that banned the existing political parties, Hikmet Çetin became an advisor in planning to the Government of Yemen.He returned to politics following his election to the parliament in 1987 as deputy of Diyarbakır from the Social Democratic Populist Party, the successor of the banned Republican People's Party. He served in the board of SHP and became its Secretary General. Hikmet Çetin was elected in 1991 for the third time to Parliament as deputy of Gaziantep from SHP.
He was appointed in 1991 Minister of Foreign Affairs in the coalition cabinet of Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel. He kept his seat in the coalition cabinet of Tansu Çiller, who took over the government leadership from Demirel after his rise to the Presidency. Hikmet Çetin resigned from his post on 27 July 1994.
In 1995, the two left wing parties, SHP and CHP decided to merge, and their general assemblies agreed on the leadership of Hikmet Çetin. He was elected chairman on 18 February 1995. At the party convention held on 9 September 1995 he did not run for the chair of the Republican People's Party again, and resigned.
Hikmet Çetin retook his seat in the Parliament in the 1995 general elections and was elected as the Speaker of the Parliament on 16 October 1997 and occupied this position until 18 April 1999.