İzlem Gürçağ Altuğra

İzlem Gürçağ Altuğra
İzlem Gürçağ Altuğra
Minister of Health
	In office; 12 May 2022 – 11 August 2023
Succeeded by	Hakan Dinçyürek [tr]
Assembly of the Republic
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 2013
Constituency	Kyrenia
Personal details
Born	İzlem Gürçağ; 1972 (age 51–52); Limassol, Cyprus
Political party	National Unity Party
Children	2
Alma mater	Hacettepe University
Occupation	Politician; medical scientist;

İzlem Gürçağ Altuğra (born 1972) is a Northern Cypriot politician and medical scientist. A National Unity Party member of the Assembly of the Republic for Kyrenia since 2013, she served as Minister of Health from 2022 until 2023, and was the first woman elected head of Girne District. Prior to her career in politics, she worked in medicine, including as a biologist in Dr. Burhan Nalbantoğlu State Hospital [tr].

Biography

İzlem Gürçağ was born in 1972 in Limassol and educated at the Department of Biology of the Hacettepe University Faculty of Science.^[1] She worked as a biologist at Dr. Burhan Nalbantoğlu State Hospital [tr] in Nicosia at and Akçiçek Hospital in Kyrenia, before starting the medical analysis laboratory LAMEL.^[1]

She was a board member in the women's branch of the National Unity Party (UBP).^[1] She was elected as a UBP MP for Kyrenia in the 2013 Northern Cypriot parliamentary election.^[1] In 2015, she was elected as the head of Girne District, the first woman to be so.^[1] She was re-elected in the 2018 and 2022 Northern Cypriot parliamentary elections.^[1]

On 12 May 2022, she was appointed Minister of Health as part of the first Üstel cabinet.^[2] In August 2022, she opened the 2022 Northern Cypriot Women's Chess Championship.^[3] In May 2023, she congratulated Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his re-election as president of Turkey after the 2023 Turkish presidential election.^[4] In February 2024, she criticized the rise of land investments by "third nationality" foreigners, saying that "our country has become foreigners' country" and that "the irregularity in land sales has made us foreigners".^[5] On 11 August 2023, she was replaced as minister by Hakan Dinçyürek when Ünal Üstel started a new cabinet.^[6]

She has two children with her spouse.^[1]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "SAĞLIK BAKANI: İZLEM GÜRÇAĞ ALTUĞRA". Ministry of Health [tr]. Archived from the original on 31 May 2023. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
^ "İZLEM GÜRÇAĞ ALTUĞRA". UBP Lefkoşa İlçesi (in Turkish). 22 November 2023. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
^ "Kadınlar Satranç Şampiyonası sona erdi". Kıbrıs Postası (in Turkish). 15 August 2022. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
^ "İzlem Gürçağ Altuğra, Erdoğan'ı tebrik etti". Kıbrıs Postası (in Turkish). 28 May 2023. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
^ "İzlem Gürçağ Altuğra: "Bu kadar çok 3'üncü uyruklu insanın ülkemizde işi ne?"". Kıbrıs Postası (in Turkish). 28 May 2023. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
^ "KKTC'de yeni kabine açıklandı". NTV (in Turkish). 11 August 2023. Retrieved 29 August 2024.