Ahmet Necdet Sezer

President of the Republic of Turkey

(Official Web Site, BBC, Encarta)

Ahmet Necdet Sezer was sworn into a seven-year term of office as Turkey's 10th President on 16 May 2000 to replace Suleyman Demirel. A reformist judge who dedicated his entire working life to the legal profession, Sezer did not seek the presidential post. The leaders of the parliamentary parties nominated him for it after failing to reach consensus on a nominee. Thus Sezer, known as a man of personal integrity with a profound respect for the rule of law, became the first Turkish president to take the post without having being either an active politician or a senior military officer.

Born on 13 September 1941 in the town of Afyon, Sezer graduated the high school in his hometown in 1958. He obtained a bachelor's degree in law from the Faculty of Law of the Ankara University in 1962 and a master's in civil law in 1978. In between, he served as a judge in Ankara, completed his military service at the Land Forces Academy, and returned to his professional career serving as a judge in the town of Dicle, and then as a supervisory judge at the High Court of Appeals in Ankara.

On 7 March 1983, Sezer was elected to the High Court of Appeals and on 27 September 1988 Kenan Evren, Turkey's president at that time, appointed him to serve at the Constitutional Court, Turkey's highest court. On 6 January 1998 Sezer was elected Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court.

On 5 May 2000, after lengthy and fruitless consultations on a presidential candidate, the leaders of all five parties in the Turkish Grand National Assembly agreed to nominate Sezer for the post of outgoing President Suleyman Demirel.

As he was sworn in, Sezer pledged to protect Turkey's secular institutions, social peace and territorial integrity at all cost. A staunch supporter of the supremacy of the law and of democratisation, he said, "Unless we abandon elements which resemble a police state, we can't meet the demands of being a modern society." He also promised to fight against corruption, stressing that no one could be above the law, and urged for stronger efforts to speed up the country's accession to the EU.

"Our country, which cannot remain inward-looking, has to become integrated with the values of civilization embraced by the European Union. Our success in the areas of the supremacy of the law and democracy will enhance our respectability in the community of modern nations," the new president said.

Sezer is married and has three children.