Namık Kemal Zeybek is a Turkish

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 politician and currently leader of the Democratic Party. A former civil servant as district governor, he was government minister in different cabinets.

He was born 1944 in the village of Kitre in Bayburt Province

Bayburt Province

Bayburt Province is a province in the north-east of Turkey. Population of the province is 74,412 and total area is 3,652 km². The capital city is Bayburt.- Districts :Bayburt province is divided into 3 districts :* Aydıntepe...

, northeastern Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. He graduated in 1966 from the Law School of Ankara University

Ankara University

Ankara University is a public university in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in the Turkish Republic....

. After serving ten years as a district governor in several places, he was promoted to the undersecretary post at the Ministry of Customs and Monopoly. Zeybek worked then four years long as a coordinator in the private sector.

In 1987, he entered politics and was elected Deputy of Istanbul into the parliament from the Motherland Party

Motherland Party (Turkey)

The Motherland Party, was a political party in Turkey. It was founded in 1983 by Turgut Özal. It was merged to Democratic Party in October 2009...

. Between 1989-1991, he served as the Minister of Culture in the cabinets of Turgut Özal

Turgut Özal

Halil Turgut Özal was Prime Minister of Turkey and President of Turkey . As Prime Minister, he transformed the economy of Turkey by paving the way for the privatization of many state enterprises.-Early life and career:...

 and Yıldırım Akbulut

Yildirim Akbulut

Yıldırım Akbulut is a Turkish politician, who was a leader of the Anavatan Partisi , a former Prime Minister of Turkey and twice the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.-Biography:...

. Later in 1996, Zeybek was appointed again minister in the coalition cabinet of Necmettin Erbakan

Necmettin Erbakan

Necmettin Erbakan was a Turkish engineer, academic, politician , who was the Prime Minister of Turkey from 1996 until 1997. He was Turkey's first Islamist Prime Minister...

.

In 2007, Namık Kemal Zeybek joined the Great Union Party

Great Union Party

The Great Union Party is a nationalist political party in Turkey, created on January 29, 1993. It is considered to be close to the Grey Wolves organization, and is related to the "Alperen Ocakları" tendency, which operated a synthesis between Islamism and Turkish Nationalism, and separated itself...

, and became its secretary general for a short time. In 2010, he entered the Democratic Party. At the 10th party congress held on January 15, 2011 in Ankara, he was elected leader of its party.