Adnan Kahveci

Adnan Kahveci (b. 1949 in Sürmene, Trabzon - d. February 5, 1993 in Gerede) was a noted Turkish politician, one of the founders in 1983 of the Motherland Party (ANAP) led by Turgut Özal and who served as minister in successive governments throughout the 1980s. Prior to his political career in Turkey, he had also led a successful career as an electrical engineer and academician in the United States, having done his studies in Purdue University and having risen to become a professor at the University of Missouri.

Biography

He was born in Sürmene, Trabzon in 1949. Adnan Kahveci was recognized very early as a child prodigy, having come first in a nationwide exam organized by the newspaper Milliyet among primary school students in 1961, in the entry exams for the select Kabataş High School in 1966, in another nationwide exam organized this time by the newspaper Hürriyet and among high school students, in the nationwide university entry exams in 1966 and in Istanbul University scholarship exams. He pursued his studies in electrical engineering in Purdue University in the United States and obtained his doctorate from Missouri University where he went on to become a professor.

After his return to Turkey, he was, for a time in the academic staff of Boğaziçi University.

He was one of the founders of ANAP ("Motherland Party"), and served for three terms as a minister (Minister of State responsible, notably, for the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation which, under his tenure, slowly and through equivocal means ceased to be the single TV channel in Turkey's media, as well as Minister of Finance) in the Turkish government. Kahveci played a catalytic role in many of the key steps taken by ANAP in the eighties, starting from internal and external politics, down until back office detective work when he arranged himself for a minister who had accepted a pay off for contracting a shipment of oil to be taped during the conversation on the transaction and brought the recording to his mentor Özal [cite book|title = Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey ISBN 1585670960|author= Nicole Pope, Hugh Pope|publisher=The Overlook Press|year=2000|language=English] .

Both in office and during the short subsequent period he spent as a member of the opposition, he was widely recognized as a maverick deputy, who spoke his mind irrespective of the party line [ cite book|title = Turkey: Political, Social and Economic Challenges in the 1990s ISBN 9004102833|author=Çiğdem Balım-Harding|publisher=Brill Publishers|year=1995|language=English] .

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