Ali Müfit Gürtuna

Ali Müfit Gürtuna (June 1, 1952 – ) was the mayor of Istanbul from November 11, 1998 to April 1, 2004.

Political career

He started his political career at ANAP in the beginning of the 1980s. He changed his side in 1994 by joining to the Welfare Party. His rise to success took place after this decision. He was appointed as the mayor of Istanbul in late 1998 and he was elected by popular vote on April 18, 1999.

When his term in the office ended, he gave up politics for two years until he returned to public eye by starting the "Turkuaz Hareketi" (Turquoise Movement) in 2006. [ [http://arsiv.sabah.com.tr/2006/11/13/gnd101.html SABAH - 13/11/2006 - Partimiz seçime yetişecek Sarıgül de bizimle ] ] [ [http://arsiv.sabah.com.tr/2006/07/08/siy109.html SABAH - 08/07/2006 - 'Turkuaz'ın lideri nabız yokluyor ] ] He claimed that he formed an armada from prominent politicians of Turkey from different political orientations to win the 2007 elections but it turned out that the politicians Gürtuna showed as his allies were not interested in "Turkuaz Hareketi" at all. [ [http://arsiv.sabah.com.tr/2006/11/14/siy109.html SABAH - 14/11/2006 - Sarıgül: Gürtuna solu karıştırmak istiyor ] ]

References