Turkish leaders attend service for AK Party lawmaker

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA

A range of senior Turkish leaders and lawmakers on Tuesday attended a service for a Turkish parliamentarian who died suddenly on Monday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister Binali and Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman were among the large crowd who gathered in the capital, Ankara, to mark the passing of Gaziantep MP, Abdulkadir Yuksel.

Tuesday’s service was attended by Yuksel's family, new and former ministers and parliamentary colleagues.

Yuksel, a married father-of-three, was first elected to the Turkish parliament for the Justice and Development (AK) Party in November 2015.

He was born in Birecik in southern Turkey’s Sanliurfa province in 1962; he passed away suddenly on Monday from a heart attack.

A graduate of the faculty of pharmacy at Gazi University in Ankara, Yuksel had been mayor of Birecik for 10 years before entering parliament.

He had also been deputy chair of local AK Party structures.

After Yuksel's death, the AK Party now has 316 lawmakers in the 550-seat parliament.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has 133 deputies, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has 36 deputies and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has 55 deputies.