Abdullah GUL

Abdullah GUL




Abdullah Gul became the 11th president of the Turkish Republic after receiving 339 votes of the lawmakers in the third round of presidential election in the parliament.
The Justice and Development Party deputy from Kayseri and Foreign Minister Abdullah GUL was born in Kayseri on October 29, 1950, the anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish Republic.
His middle name "Cumhur" which means people- was chosen because his birth coincided with Republic Day, but his family did not formally register "Cumhur" on his birth certificate.
His father, Ahmet Hamdi GUL, worked at an aircraft factory in Kayseri; his mother was the daughter of a teacher. Being the first male grandchild in the family, Abdullah GUL became the apple of the eye of both his paternal and maternal families, both of which are very old families.

In his youth GUL was instrumental in the formation of the ideology behind the Great East Thought Club and the National Turkish Students' Union. He closely monitored the seminars given by poet Necip Fazil Kisakürek.
After graduation from Istanbul University GUL did his doctorate in the faculty of economics. He later taught economics in Sakarya University's department of industrial engineering. GUL went to Saudi Arabia in 1983 to work in the Islamic Development Bank, where he would stay for eight years.

Abdullah GUL first encountered Turkish politics in 1991 when Necmettin Erbakan who was once prime minister of Turkiye asked GUL to work for his Welfare Party. In his early years in Parliament, GUL saw the appreciation of not only his own party, but other parties. GUL later became the Welfare Party's poster boy, particularly attracting attention in speeches and efforts on the parliamentary Planning and Budgetary Commission.
During his foreign missions, including those to the European Commission, he made many new friends and also paved the way to the Foreign Ministry. In 1993 he became his party's vice president in charge of foreign affairs.
After serving as a minister and the spokesman for the coalition government led by Erbakan, GUL continued to work with his closest friends at the party's Political Research Center and founded the new Justice and Development Party in August 2001.

GUL has made invaluable contributions to the AK Party government, both as prime minister and as foreign minister. Under his tutelage Turkiye started progress towards membership in the EU, was active in the resolution of international crises and established new points of communal reconciliation. The Cypriot policy Turkiye has followed for years underwent a complete change during his time at the Foreign Ministry. The international community began to closely monitor Turkiye's foreign policy during his time at the ministry's helm.

His bid for presidency, which has never ceased to have tension and excitement for the experienced politician, began on April 20, when GUL was officially announced by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as the party's only presidential candidate.
Foreign Minister GUL, whose road was full of obstacles, has received the positive results of his determined walk toward the Presidential Palace. Having made a very bright career in the political sphere and having obtained a golden opportunity to become the top man in the state, GUL has been at the heart of the most heated national debates.
Turkiye was soon to find itself in a very tense atmosphere. The opposition parties did not participate in the first round of the vote in the parliament, and the Constitutional Court incapacitated the Parliament by making an arbitrary interpretation of the quorum of 367. Therefore Erdogan's government had no other choice except head for elections.

Ultimately, the elections were set for July 22. It was held under the shadow of the presidential election crisis. The victimization of Abdullah GUL deeply influenced the voters. And GUL participated in the election rallies in person. He was received everywhere he went with the slogan of "President GUL!" The AK Party's percentage of the vote, 47 percent, was binding both for GUL and his party.
And the discussions over Abdullah GUL's presidential bid were not over. Although Prime Minister Erdogan and GUL were tight-lipped about who would run, GUL was determined. He strongly implied his candidacy by noting in a statement he made right after the elections: "I cannot overlook the people's will."

Moncef Marzouki

Moncef Marzouki



Moncef Marzouki was the leader of the center-left party CPR (Congress For the Republic) until he became the fifth Tunisian President since December 12, 2011. In 2001, Marzouki founded the Congress for the Republic Party (CPR), which took the second highest number of seats (29) in the October 23rd Constituent Assembly elections.

October 21st, 2011 marked the last official day of the electoral campaign, and the Congress for the Republic held their closing rally in the Labor Stock Market office in downtown. Party leader Moncef Marzouki delivered an emotional but upbeat message focusing on overcoming the challenges left to Tunisians after 23 years of dictatorship.

After the revolution of January 14, the CPR emerged on the political stage and received its authorization on March 8th, 2011. According to the party, its main target is to ensure “the sovereignty of the people, the dignity of the citizen and the legitimacy of the state.” The party is known as being against the interference of money in political life. Moncef Marzouki accused Ennahda, the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) and the Free Patriotic Union (UPL) of buying votes.

The party is recognized by its symbol: the glasses. It is considered a sort of self-deprecation, as Moncef Marzouki is famous for his glasses. The party also specified: “this product is free of political funds”. The slogan of the party is: “for a clearer vision”.

Moncef Marzouki studied at the University of Strasbourg and graduated in 1973. He conducted research abroad and then came back to Tunisia and taught general medicine at the University of Sousse.

He occupied several key positions such as head of the Tunisian League of Human Rights and head of the National Committee for the Defense of Prisoners of Opinion

December 13, 2011 Elected President of Tunisia from 2011 to Present

Name : Moncef Marzouki ID : 18692616 Gender: Male Born: July 7, 1945 ( 67 years ) Country: Tunisia Place of birth: Grombalia

Crin Antonescu

Crin Antonescu



born 21 September 1959) is a Romanian politician, serving as President of the National Liberal Party (PNL He is a member of the Senate, his election having taken place during the 2008 legislative election. Between 1996 and 2008 he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies, acting as leader of the party delegates between 2007 and 2008. On 3 July 2012 he was elected President of the Senate after the latter dismissed the former leader Vasile Blaga from office. He became Acting President of Romania on 10 July 2012 after the Parliament suspended Traian Băsescu for the second time on 6 July 2012.

Early life and education

Antonescu was born in Tulcea, Tulcea County. After his parents divorce he was raised by his father, who encouraged him to attend the Faculty of History and Philosophy at the National University of Bucharest, in order to become a History teacher

Professional career

Upon graduating in 1985, Crin Antonescu worked as a History teacher in the village of Solești, Vaslui County He later returned to Tulcea, continuing his teaching activity in Niculiţel until 1989. Antonescu worked as a curator for the Tulcea Museum of History and Archaeology from 1989 to 1990, when he resumed his teaching activity at the “Spiru Haret” High School in Tulcea, prior to being elected to the Chamber of Deputies.

 Political career

Upon joining the National Liberal Party, Antonescu helped organize the Tulcea branch of the party. In 1995, he was elected PNL Vice President and, subsequently, leader of the Liberal politicians active in the Chamber of Deputies, holding that position for two non-consecutive mandates. During his activity in the Chamber of Deputies, he was a member of the Committee for Education, Youth and Sports, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Committee of Culture, Arts and Media.
Crin Antonescu was the Romanian Minister of Youth and Sports from 1997 to 2000 He initiated a series of reforms, the most prominent being the legal perpetuity for Romanian athletes with significant Olympic results
As of 20 March 2009, Crin Antonescu was the President of the National Liberal Party, in addition to being the party’s candidate for the 2009 Presidential Elections in Romania. In September 2009, Crin Antonescu was situated third in Romanians' voting preferences for the 2009 Presidential elections. As of May 2011 he is credited by public polls as first in line for the next Presidential elections.After President Traian Basescu's suspension on 3rd July 2012, he assumed acting presidency of Romania.

Personal life

Antonescu's first wife Aurelia committed suicide in 2004 due to an incurable disease. The pair have a daughter, Irina, born in 2001. In June 2009, Antonescu announced he would get married again to party colleague Adina Vălean. The couple married on 25 September 2009

Traian Băsescu

President of Romania
Born November 4, 1951, in Basarabi, Romania; married Maria. Education: Graduated from the Navy Institute of Constan[H6031]a, 1976.

Career

Merchant marine officer, Navrom, 1976-81; oil tanker captain, Navrom, 1981-87; headed the Navrom office in Antwerp, Belgium, 1987-89; general manager of the State Inspectorate for the Civil Navigation within the Romanian Ministry of Transportation, 1989-90; Undersecretary of State, Chief of the Shipping Department within the Ministry of Transportation, 1990-91; elected to Romanian parliament on the Democratic Party ticket, 1992; transportation minister, 1991-92, and 1996-2000; elected mayor of Bucharest, 2000; elected president of Romania on the Alian[H6031]a DA slate, December, 2004.

Sidelights

In a surprising turn of political events, Traian BaȈsescu became president of Romania in December of 2004. Romanians and international observers alike declared his victory a sign of the genuine end of Romania's communist era some 15 years after what turned out to be its merely symbolic finish back in 1989. While the Eastern European nation's human-rights record had improved considerably in the interim, the political life in this nation of 23 million continued to be dominated by the former Communists,

munists, who led new political parties. BaȈsescu rose to prominence as an opponent of the corruption and cronyism of that post-Communist aftermath.
Born in November of 1951, BaȈsescu spent his earliest years in a village called Basarabi, not far from Constan[H6031]a, Romania's Black Sea port. He graduated from the Navy Institute of Constan[H6031]a in 1976, and joined Navrom, the state-owned shipping company, as a merchant marine officer. Romania during the first four decades of BaȈsescu's life was a tightly controlled socialist state under longtime president Nicolae Ceauşescu, in power since 1965. The Romanian Communist Party (PCR) dominated life in the country, which enjoyed a relatively high standard of living until the 1980s, when Ceauşescu's grandiose building projects resulted in drastic food rationing rules and fuel shortages.
BaȈsescu joined the PCR, a move essential for any career advancement in Romania during the Ceauş-escu era. He spent five years as an officer, and in 1981 was made captain of an oil tanker, the Birun [H6031] a , that was the largest vessel in the Romanian fleet. In 1987, he was posted to Antwerp, Belgium, to run Navrom's foreign office in this North Sea-linked port city. He remained there until year that the Ceauşescu regime came to a violent 1989, the same year that the Ceausescu regime came to a violent but relatively swift end: in December of that year, the army fired on protesters in Timişoara, and Ceauşescu condemned the uprising as the work of foreign agents. A planned pro-Ceauşescu demonstration in Bucharest quickly erupted into an anti-government one; the military and Securitate (secret police) abandoned Ceauşescu, who was executed with his wife after a sham trial on Christmas Day.
A new political organization, the Frontul SalvaȈrii Na[H6031]ionale (National Salvation Front, or FSN), arose to fill the power vacuum, and BaȈsescu soon joined it. During that first year, he held a management position in the Romanian Ministry of Transportation, and in 1990 was named undersecretary of state in the Ministry's shipping department. In 1992, the FSN split in two, and one of the parties that came out of its ashes was the Social Democratic Party (PSD) of Romania. The PSD was led by Ion Iliescu, a high-ranking Communist official who had fallen out with the Ceauşescu regime some years earlier. BaȈsescu joined the other party that emerged from the split, the Democratic Party (PD) of Romania. In 1991 he became the country's Minister of Transportation, but it was a time when Romania was busy selling off its merchant fleet, and there were charges that BaȈsescu may have personally benefited from the sales he helped to arrange. He served in the cabinet until 1992, but was elected to Romania's parliament that same year.
The Dosarul Flota (Fleet Affair) became an increasingly prominent story in Romania's press in the mid-1990s, and an official investigation began. BaȈsescu took the unusual step of formally renouncing his parliamentary immunity in 1996. This meant that he could be fully investigated for his former role as Minister of Transportation, and was a clear effort to vindicate his name before the public. He was the first member of Romania's parliament ever to renounce his immunity. Re-elected that same year, he was named Minister for Transportation once again, a cabinet post he held for the next four years. In 2000, he entered the Bucharest mayor's race, and won by a narrow margin. He went on to achieve a number of notable reforms within the capital city, and improve the standard of living for its two million residents over the next four years. One of the city's more bizarre problems was a large stray-dog population that was estimated to be at least 150, 000 and perhaps as high as 300, 000 when he took office; some 1, 500 dog bites were reported daily. BaȈsescu enacted strong measures to reduce the population, but animal-rights activists, including 1950s French film star Brigitte Bardot, objected; he dismissed their complaints with the retort, "I am elected by the people of Bucharest, not the dogs, " according to Times correspondent Adam LeBor.
BaȈsescu was elected his party's president in 2001, and two years later was instrumental in forming the Alian [H6031] aDA (Justice and Truth Alliance) with another of Romania's political parties to oppose the PSD, which had been in power for much of the post-Communist era but was largely made up of former Communist elites. In 2004, he became the presidential candidate on the Alian[H6031]a DA ticket, and ran a campaign that urged voters to oust the former Communists. In the run-up to the election, BaȈsescu lagged in opinion polls, and his opponent Adrian NaȈstase—PSD leader as well as incumbent prime minister—took the first round of balloting. International observers, however, found multiple instances of vote fraud. A second round of voting was held on December 12 and judged by the monitors to have been more fairly conducted, and BaȈsescu won the presidency.
With his victory at the polls, BaȈsescu became the leader of the country's first genuinely truly non-Communist government since the World War II era. During his first months in office, he enacted a new flat tax in an attempt to curb Romania's thriving black-market economy, and met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush. With Romania scheduled to become a member of the European Union (EU) in 2007, there were several drastic reforms—some in the realm of justice and human rights, others economic—that the country would have to enact before formal entry into the EU, but BaȈsescu reassured Romanians and the rest of the world that he was ready to lead. "I've been the sea captain of large oil tankers, " a Newsweek International report from Andrei Postelnicu and Michael Meyer quoted him as saying, "and I always reach my destination."

Rupiah Banda

Rupiah Banda

Rupiah Banda was born in Gwanda on February 13th 1937. He is currently the President of Zambia and head of state of Zambia. Banda graduated from Cambridge University, Wolfson College, Cambridge and Lund University. His current occupation is politician.

Rupiah Banda, 71, who was poised Tuesday to become acting president following the death of Zambia's leader of seven years, Levy Mwanawasa, is a career diplomat with a sideline in business. Under the Zambian constitution, when a sitting president dies, the vice president automatically becomes president but must call elections within 90 days.
Banda was born in 1937 in Gwanda, in the south of what was then British-ruled Southern Rhodesia, but he has has Zambian nationality.
Following the independence of what was then Northern Rhodesia from Britain in 1964 Banda served as ambassador to Egypt first, then the United States.
He also served as Zambia's representative to the United Nations before being made foreign minister in the 1970s in the administration of Zambia's first post-independence leader, Kenneth Kaunda.
With a degree in economics, he was also at one point the managing director of the National Agricultural Marketing Board (NAMBOARD), which is responsible for buying locally-produced staple foods.
After his spell as foreign minister, Banda served 10 years as a parliamentarian between 1978 and 1988.
As the owner of KB Davis, a firm that supplies mining equipment in the north-central Copperbelt region, he is also a prominent businessman.
His appointment to the post of vice president following Mwanawasa's reelection to a second five-year term in 2006 was seen as a move to reward Zambians in his home area, a stronghold of his (and Kaunda's) United National Independence Party, for supporting the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD).
Reflecting on his career during an address to ambassadors in recent months, Banda said: "The diplomatic service was a launching pad. It gave me all the experience needed in statecraft, diplomacy and governance."
After Mwanawasa fell out of favour with Zimbabwe's authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe for calling Zimbabwe a "sinking Titanic" last year it was Banda who was dispatched to Harare to smooth the ruffled feathers.
Despite being 11 years the senior of deceased President Levy Mwanwasa, who was dogged by health problems, Banda, a grandfather, says he is in good health. - dpa