Temel Karamollaoğlu

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Temel Karamollaoğlu
Leader of the Felicity Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 30 October 2016
Preceded by	Mustafa Kamalak
Member of the Grand National Assembly
In office 8 January 1996 – 3 November 2002
In office 5 June 1977 – 12 September 1980
Constituency	Sivas
Mayor of Sivas
In office 26 March 1989 – 1995
Preceded by	Bekir Timurboğa
Succeeded by	Osman Seçilmiş
Personal details
Born	(1941-09-20) 20 September 1941 (age 82) Kahramanmaraş, Turkey
Political party	Current: Felicity Party Previous: Virtue Party Welfare Party National Salvation Party
Spouse	Ayşe Yasemin Karamollaoğlu ​ ​ (m. 1965)​
Children	5
Alma mater	University of Manchester
Profession	Politician

Temel Karamollaoğlu (born 20 September 1941) is a

Karamollaoğlu met Necmettin Erbakan in 1967. They met in a talk held by Mehmed Zahid Kotku in a İskenderpaşa Sufi Order meeting.^[2] In 1977, he was elected as a deputy of Sivas from Erbakan's National Salvation Party and he was, one year later, elected as a member of the party general assembly in 1978. He served European Council Assembly.

After the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, he was prosecuted by the military government, but eventually acquitted.^[2] He remained out of active politics, where he worked as a private consultant for a while and then held administrative positions in a textile company. He was allowed to return after the passage of the 1987 Turkish constitutional referendum. He ran as a member of parliament under the Welfare Party in the 1987 general election, but the party did not win representation for polling below the 10% threshold.^[2]

He was elected mayor of

He entered the parliament after the 1995 Turkish general election as a deputy of Sivas of the Welfare Party. During this period, he served as a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. At the same time, he was elected as the Welfare Party group vice president. He continued this duty until the Welfare Party was shut down. Following investigations of the Refah-Yol government, Karamollaoğlu’s brother and other officials at the state-run fertilizer firm TÜGSAŞ were prosecuted for siphoning off $20 million in gas. It was also discovered that he is affiliated with the controversial Aczmendi Sufi Order.^[2]

Later, he joined the Virtue Party after the Welfare Party was dissolved by the Constitutional Court. He was re-elected as a deputy of Sivas in the 1999 Turkish general election, during which the Virtue Party was also banned. He was a member of the "White Beard" faction, the orthodox Milli Görüş politicians that opposed the reformist "Innovators", led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The White Beards formed the Felicity Party (SP), while the Innovators formed the Justice and Development Party (AKP). At the Felicity Party congress held in May 2000, Karamollaoğlu was elected as a member of the general administrative board and was appointed as the vice president responsible for foreign affairs.^[2]

Karamollaoğlu was appointed as leader of the Felicity Party in 2016.

Personal life

Karamollaoğlu speaks fluent English. He has been married since 1965 and has 5 children.

References