Meral Akşener

Meral Akşener — Biography

Born on 18 July 1956 in İzmit, Meral Akşener graduated from the History Department of the Faculty of Letters at Istanbul University and began an academic career after earning a doctorate in history from the Institute of Social Sciences at Marmara University.

She entered politics as a True Path Party deputy in the 1995 election and served as Turkey's Minister of the Interior in the coalition government led by Necmettin Erbakan between 1996 and 1997, becoming the first woman to hold that post. Later, as a Nationalist Movement Party deputy elected in the 2007, 2011 and 2015 elections, she served as Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey from 2007 to 2015, becoming the first woman elected to that position.

Following internal disagreements within the party, Akşener parted ways with the Nationalist Movement Party in 2017 and founded the İYİ Party on 25 October 2017, serving as its chairwoman; she stood as the party's candidate in the 2018 presidential election. She stepped down as party leader after the 2024 local elections and was succeeded by Müsavat Dervişoğlu.