Ali Babacan Quotes

Ali Babacan is a Turkish politician and the current Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey responsible for the Economy. He was previously Minister of Economy in the 58th cabinet from the Justice and Development Party. On August 29, 2007, he was named Minister of Foreign Affairs of in the cabinet of re-elected Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Babacan succeeded Abdullah Gül, who became President. Babacan graduated from Ankara College ranking first among the class of 1985. He attended the Middle East Technical University in Ankara and in 1989 was awarded a BSc in Industrial Engineering with the highest marks. He went to the U.S. on a Fulbright Scholarship to do postgraduate studies and in 1992 received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, with majors in marketing, organizational behavior and international business. He returned to Turkey in 1994 and, served as chief advisor to the mayor of Ankara the same year. He entered politics in 2001 as a co-founder and a Board member of the Justice and Development Party [2] and was elected to parliament as deputy for Ankara on November 3, 2002. He was appointed Minister of Economy on November 18, 2002 and became the youngest member of the cabinet, then at the age of 35.