Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (Turkish: ; also referred to by his initials KK; born 17 December 1948) is a Turkish politician and former leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP).

Kemal Karabulut was born on 17 December 1948 in the Ballıca village of Nazımiye district in Tunceli Province, eastern Turkey, to Kamer, a clerk-recorder of deeds and his wife Yemuş.

Kemal was the fourth oldest of their seven children.

Kemal's father changed the family name from Karabulut to Kılıçdaroğlu in the 1960s because everyone in their village had the same last name (Karabulut).

His father was among thousands of exiled Alevis following the failed Dersim rebellion.

Kemal continued his primary and secondary education in various places such as Erciş, Tunceli, Genç, and Elazığ.

He studied economics at the Ankara Academy of Economics and Commercial Sciences, now Gazi University, from which he graduated in 1971.

During his youth, he earned his living by selling goods.

After university, Kılıçdaroğlu entered the Ministry of Finance as a junior account specialist in 1971.

He was later promoted to accountant and was sent to France for additional professional training.

In 1983, he was appointed deputy director general of the Revenues Department in the same ministry.

At that time he worked closely with Prime Minister Turgut Özal.

In 1991, Kılıçdaroğlu became director-general of the Social Security Organization for Artisans and Self-Employed (Bağ-Kur).

Before entering politics, Kılıçdaroğlu was a civil servant and served as the director-general of the Social Insurance Institution from 1992 to 1996 and again from 1997 to 1999.

In 1992 he was appointed director-general of the Social Insurance Institution (Turkish:, abbreviated SSK).

In 1994, Kılıçdaroğlu was named "Civil Servant of the Year" by the weekly periodical Ekonomik Trend.

Kılıçdaroğlu retired from the Social Insurance Institution in January 1999.

He taught at Hacettepe University and chaired the Specialized Commission on the Informal Economy within the framework of the preparation of the Eighth Five-Year Development Plan.

He also acted as a member of the Executive Board of İşbank.

Kılıçdaroğlu retired from civil service in 1999 and tried to enter politics from within Bülent Ecevit's Democratic Left Party (DSP).

He was often referred to as the "star of the DSP".

It was claimed that he would be a DSP candidate in the upcoming 1999 general election, in which the DSP came first.

However, he did not succeed in this venture as he could not get on the party's candidates' list.

Instead, during his chairmanship of an association that aimed to protect citizen tax payments, he was invited by the leader of the CHP Deniz Baykal to join his party and accepted the invitation.

He served as a member of parliament for Istanbul's second electoral district from 2002 to 2015, and as an MP for İzmir's second electoral district from 2015 to 2023.

He was elected to Parliament in the 2002 general election and became the CHP's parliamentary group leader.

Following the 2002 general election, he entered the parliament as a deputy from Istanbul.

In the 2007 general election, he was re-elected to parliament.

He became deputy speaker of his party's parliamentary group.

Kılıçdaroğlu's efforts to uncover malpractice among high-ranking Justice and Development Party (AKP) politicians carried him to headlines in the Turkish media.

Two deputy chairmen of the ruling AKP, Şaban Dişli and Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat, resigned from their respective positions in the party following television debates with Kılıçdaroğlu.

In the 2009 local elections, he was nominated as the CHP candidate to run for Mayor of İstanbul, but lost to the AKP.

He was Leader of the Main Opposition in Turkey between 2010 and 2023.

After Deniz Baykal resigned as the party's leader in 2010, Kılıçdaroğlu announced his candidacy and was unanimously elected as the leader of the CHP.

He was elected deputy chairman of the Socialist International in August 2012.

He was seen as likely to modernize the CHP.

Although the CHP saw a subsequent increase in its share of the vote, it is unable to unseat the ruling AKP as of 2023.

As leader of the main opposition, Kılıçdaroğlu's strategy has been to construct big-tent coalitions with other parties, which culminated in the formation of the Nation Alliance and CHP's subsequent victories in the 2019 local elections.

He was the CHP's and the Nation Alliance's joint candidate for the 2023 Turkish presidential election, but lost to incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

After his loss, he was voted out as leader of the CHP on 5 November 2023 and was replaced by Özgür Özel.