Politician, the Mayor of
Metropolitan Municipality of Ankara. He was born on 20 October 1948 in the county of
Keçiören in Ankara. He was the oldest child of a family with three children. Melih Gökçek
resided in the capital city of Ankara
until he was five. After his father decided to work as a lawyer, the family of
Gökçek moved to Gaziantep.
He completed his elementary, primary and high school education in Gaziantep. When he
finished Graduate School of Journalism at Gazi University, he worked as the
reporter of the Parliament and the representative of a newspaper for a while.
Serving as a reserve officer in Güzelyurt in Cyprus, Gökçek entered into
business life following his return from the military service. Between 1984 and
1989, he served as the mayor of Keçiören; between 1989 and 1991, as the general
director of Turkish Social Service and Children Protection Institution. He
entered into the assembly as the representative of Ankara from the Refah Party
in 1991.
In 1994, while he was a parliamentarian in local
elections, he became a candidate for the Metropolitan Municipality of Ankara
and won the elections. In 1999, he was re-elected in the local elections and he
became the first person winning the Metropolitan
Municipality twice throughout the
history of Ankara.
In 2004, he was elected in the local elections for the third time, and then he
became the first one winning the mayor elections of Ankara for the third time successively
throughout the city’s history.
In 2009, he was again elected in the local
elections for the same task for the fourth time and this is a record in the
history of Ankara. Married with two children, the biggest pastime activity of
Gökçek is playing football and photography.
