Biography of Tunç Soyer, the mayor of Izmir, Türkiye
Mustafa Tunç Soyer (born 1959) is a Turkish politician from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) who currently serves as the mayor of Izmir, the third-largest city in Turkey. He was elected to this position in the municipal elections of 2019. He previously served as the mayor of Seferi Hisar, the coastal district of Izmir, from 2009 to 2019.
Young age and education of Tunç Soyer
Soyer was born in 1959 in Ankara, the capital of Türkiye. He graduated from Bornova Anadolu Lise, a prestigious high school in the Bornova region of Izmir, and before graduating, he studied foreign languages, especially English and French. Then, he continued his studies at Ankara Law School and graduated in 1981. During his studies, he was an actor and assistant theater director. He completed two master’s degrees, one at Geneva’s Webster University in International Relations and the other at the University of Decozeales on the European Union.
The political life of Tunç Soyer
In addition to the traveling mayor of Hisar and Izmir, Soyer was also an adviser to the former mayor of Izmir, Ahmed Prishtina. He also served as assistant secretary-general and executive member of foreign relations at Izmir Chamber of Commerce. He was the general secretary of the steering and executive committees of EXPO 2015.
The position of Safari Mayor of Hisar Tunç Soyer
In the local elections 2009, Tunç Soyer was elected as the traveling mayor of Hisar, the coastal region of Izmir. He was the leading candidate of the center-left opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP). He was elected for the second time in the 2014 local elections.
Soyer gained national attention for his success as the traveling mayor of Hisar, promoting the city as a unique tourist destination. A trip to Hisar became a member of Cittaslow, the first in Turkey. Due to his success and popularity in Seferi Hisar, Sevier was often seen as a potential future candidate for the Izmir Municipality.
Cittaslow is an organization founded in Italy inspired by the slow food movement. The goals of Cittaslow include improving the quality of life in cities by reducing their overall speed, especially in the urban use of spaces and the flow of energy and traffic through them.
Izmir Municipality
After announcing that Aziz Kocaoglu, the previous mayor of Izmir, will not run for another term, the CHP has begun vetting new candidates. Despite Kocaoglu deciding to re-enter the race shortly before the CHP announced its candidate, Sevier was eventually elected and long considered the front-runner. Soyer was supported by the İYİ party, with which the CHP formed an electoral alliance called Ittehad Mellat.
In the 2019 mayoral election, held as part of the 2019 local elections, Soyer was elected with 58.1 percent of the vote, beating Popular Coalition candidate Nihat Zibekci. Former economy minister Zibekci won 38.7 percent of the vote. Tunç Soyer has organized many exhibitions under the leadership of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality.
The family and personal life of the mayor of Izmir
Tunç Soyer and Neptune Soyer married in 1988 when Neptune Soyer was 22. Neptune Soyer worked in the tourism sector between 1999 and 2002.
Izmir’s mayor’s father, Tunç Soyer
Soyer’s father, Nortin Soyer, was a prosecutor in opening cases against prominent politicians after the 1980 coup. His prosecutions resulted in 5 death sentences, nine life sentences, and imprisonment from 10 months to 36 years for 221 other defendants. Most of the people who were prosecuted were from far-right groups. One of the defendants was Alparslan Turkesh, the founder and first leader of the National Movement Party (MHP).
When Tunç Soyer became the CHP’s candidate for mayor of Izmir in 2019, the ruling popular coalition, including the MHP, heavily criticized him for his father’s actions against nationalist politicians. However, Nour al-Din Soyer also defends himself because he is the only prosecutor to file a case against Fethullah Gulen, the leader of the Gulen movement, an organization that Turkish authorities (under the name “FETÖ”) claim to be a terrorist group. be.)
