The Brussels-born Mahinur Özdemir Göktas has been named as Turkey’s Minister of Family and Social Services – and is the only woman in government – by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after his re-election win last week.
The appointment represents a significant role in Turkish politics for Özdemir Göktas who had originally tried to climb up the political ranks in her country of birth, Belgium.
The new minister holds dual Turkish and Belgian citizenship and was elected as a councillor in 2006 for the municipality of Schaerbeek, where she was born. Three years later, she would be sworn in as an MP in the Brussels-Capital Region.
Typically Brussels, Özdemir Göktas speaks French, Flemish, English, Turkish and Spanish. She originally wanted to study law, but soon changed her mind after realising she would not be able to wear a headscarf in court.
After her election, she became the first parliamentarian in Belgium to wear the veil.
After having been elected while representing the centrist party, the Humanist Democratic Centre (cdH) party, who are now known as Les Engagés. Her party used to be the country’s Christian democrats, but also other religious voters, before it chose to turn to promote humanism.
The party's prior political stance helped explain their tolerance towards Özdemir Göktas’ choice to wear her headscarf in parliament – particularly during a time of increased calls for secularism and the banning of religious symbols in public office in Belgium.
Mahinur Özdemir Göktas during her swearing-in as MP for the Region of Brussels-Capital. Credit: Belga / Benoit Doppagne
However, certain cracks started to appear between her and the party after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended her wedding in 2010. At the time, Erdoğan was the Prime Minister.
Although the Turkish leader was a less internationally controversial figure back then, his presence at Özdemir Göktas' wedding ceremony in Turkey was widely criticised back in Belgium.
Yet it was her opinion on the Armenian genocide that led her away from Belgian politics and closer into the arms of Turkey’s political leaders.
In 2015, she was expelled from her party after failing to recognise the genocide. Moreover, she also failed to attend a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the atrocities in the Brussels Parliament. At the time, she claimed her opposition as "freedom of speech".
The office of Erdoğan's Justice and Development (AKP) party in Brussels immediately supported her, with an affiliated organisation leading various demonstrations in the city.
Özdemir Göktas defended herself by claiming that no court rulings supported Armenia’s claims, but it was not enough to stop the cdH from kicking her out of the party, The leader at the time, Benoit Lutgen, stated that all "genocide deniers within the party would be expelled."
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Following her departure, Özdemir had floated the idea of joining the French-speaking Socialist Party (PS) for the 2018 local elections, but after talks failed, the politician decided not to run for re-election in Belgium.
Özdemir Göktas maintained her support of Turkey's political class, keeping close ties to President Erdoğan. In the years that followed her departure from Belgian politics, Özdemir would eventually re-launch her career in Turkey.
She was appointed as the country’s ambassador to Algeria in 2020, before being given the role of Families and Social Services Minister in Erdoğan's latest government.
