Former CHP leader hospitalized

Hikmet Çetin, one of the former chairmen of the Republican People's Party (CHP), has been hospitalized for treatment due to pneumonia. It was reported that 88-year-old Çetin was taken to Başkent Hospital in Ankara yesterday evening following complaints of shortness of breath and a lung infection.

“HIS CONDITION IS GOOD, HE WILL BE KEPT UNDER OBSERVATION”

It was learned that Çetin, who was diagnosed with early-stage pneumonia during examinations by doctors, was admitted to the intensive care unit as a precaution. According to information obtained from hospital sources, Çetin's general health condition is good, and it is planned that he will be moved out of intensive care tomorrow and kept under observation for a while longer.

ÖZGÜR ÖZEL IS CLOSELY FOLLOWING DEVELOPMENTS

It was noted that CHP Chairman Özgür Özel is also being regularly informed about the health status of former chairman Hikmet Çetin.

WHO IS HIKMET ÇETIN?

Born in 1937 in the Lice district of Diyarbakır, Hikmet Çetin is 88 years old. He completed his primary and secondary education in Lice and his high school education at Ankara Atatürk High School. In 1960, he graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University, Department of Economics and Finance. Hikmet Çetin is married to İnci Çetin and has two children.

After graduating from university, he began working as an assistant expert at the State Planning Organization (DPT) in the same year. Between 1964 and 1965, he completed his master's degree in development economics at Williams College in the USA. In 1968, he conducted research on planning models at Stanford University. He played important roles in Turkey's first and second five-year development plans. In 1971, he became the Head of the Economic Planning Department at the DPT. He remained in this position until 1977. During the same period, he also served as a part-time faculty member at METU.

In the 1977 General Elections, he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Istanbul from the Republican People's Party and entered the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM). Between 1978 and 1979, he served as Minister of State and Deputy Prime Minister in the Bülent Ecevit government. During this period, he played an active role in the government's planning and coordination processes, particularly in economic matters.

Following the September 12, 1980 coup, he worked as a development consultant in North Yemen for a time. He became a candidate from the SHP in the 1986 by-elections; he returned to Parliament in 1987 as a Member of Parliament for Diyarbakır. He served as SHP Group Deputy Chairman and subsequently as Secretary General.

Hikmet Çetin, who entered Parliament as a Member of Parliament for Gaziantep in the 1991 elections, joined the cabinet as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the DYP–SHP Coalition government led by Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel. He continued in the same position in the government formed by Tansu Çiller in 1993. He resigned from his post on July 27, 1994.

At the historic convention in 1995 where the CHP and SHP merged, Hikmet Çetin was elected as the first chairman of the unified party. However, he withdrew from the chairmanship by not running as a candidate at the ordinary convention held in September of the same year.

Re-elected as a Member of Parliament for Gaziantep in the 1995 elections, Çetin was appointed as the Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 1997. He held this position until 1999.

In 2004, he was appointed by NATO as the Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan. He remained in this position, which is considered one of the highest levels of diplomatic responsibility on behalf of Turkey, until 2006. During his tenure, he took an active role in ensuring civil stability, the reconstruction of institutions, and democratization processes in Afghanistan.

Having moved away from active politics after 1999, Hikmet Çetin served as the chief foreign policy advisor to President Süleyman Demirel. In the 2010s, he was briefly involved in the Turkey Change Movement (TDH), and later returned to the CHP.

News Source: 12punto