Quick Facts
Biography
Ali Fethi Okyar (29 April 1880 – 7 May 1943) was a Turkish diplomat and politician, who also served as a military officer and diplomat during the last decade of the Ottoman Empire. He was also the second Prime Minister of Turkey (1924–1925) and the second Speaker of the Turkish Parliament after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Biography
He was born in the Ottoman town of Prilep in Manastir Vilayet (present-day Republic of Macedonia) to a Circassian family. In 1913, he joined the Committee of Union and Progress (İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti) and was elected as the secretary general. In 1930, while serving as Turkey's Ambassador in Paris, he was asked by Atatürk, during a meeting in Yalova, to establish the Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası (Liberal Republican Party), an early party of opposition, in order to establish the tradition of multi-party democracy in Turkey. However, when the government noticed the support of this opposition party among Islamists, it was declared illegal and closed down, a situation similar to that of the Progressive Republican Party, which had lasted for a few months in 1924. He later served as Justice Minister from 1939 to 1941.
Atatürk and Okyar, August 1930
Okyar in his early days
Okyar in the 1930s
