| Fatih Erbakan | |
| Term Start: | 2 June 2023 |
| Constituency: | Istanbul II (2023) |
| Office2: | Leader of the New Welfare Party |
| Predecessor2: | Party established |
| Term Start2: | 23 November 2018 |
| Party: | New Welfare Party (2018–present)[1] |
| Birth Name: | Muhammed Ali Fatih Erbakan |
| Birth Date: | 1 January 1979 |
| Birth Place: | Ankara, Turkey |
| Nationality: | Turkish |
| Children: | 2 |
| Alma Mater: | Başkent University |
| Parents: | Necmettin Erbakan (father) |
| Otherparty: | Virtue Party (1999–2001) Felicity Party (2001–15)[2] |
Muhammed Ali Fatih Erbakan (born 1 January 1979, in Ankara) is a Turkish engineer and politician who is the founder and leader of the Islamic fundamentalist[3] New Welfare Party (YRP). A son of Necmettin Erbakan, the former Prime Minister of Turkey who led the YRP's predecessor, the Welfare Party, he is the President of the Necmettin Erbakan Foundation.
Fatih Erbakan was born on 1 January 1979 in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey.[4] He completed his secondary education at an İmam Hatip institution and his high school education at Ankara Ayrancı High School. He graduated from Başkent University in the field of electrical engineering. He went to England to continue his higher education in pursuit of a Master's degree, but returned to Turkey in 2005 when his mother, Nermin Erbakan, died. He later got his Master's degree from Başkent University. He completed his doctorate in management and organization at the same university.[5]
By 1999, Erbakan was a member of the Virtue Party. After its dissolution by the Constitutional Court of Turkey,[6] the Felicity Party was founded, which Erbakan joined. He was on the Board of the Headquarters Youth Branch, remaining in the party until the 5th Ordinary Congress in 2014.[7]
On November 23, 2018, he founded the New Welfare Party (YRP) again and was elected as its Chairman.[8] The New Welfare Party was organized in 81 provinces and 800 districts in Turkey and its work continues. As YRP Chairman on 17 November 2019, he organized one of the largest congresses in Turkish political history with the participation of 45,000 people. In addition, the first rally was held on February 9, 2020, in the area of Sakarya Democracy Square, as the Jerusalem Rally.
He announced his candidacy for the 2023 Turkish presidential election,[1] but later dropped out of the race and endorsed Erdogan.[9]
Erbakan is against LGBT rights, and has declared that LGBT people are "a perversion banned in every religion".[10] Erbakan also aims to lift a law that protects women and children against domestic violence,[11] [12] calling it "fascist and feminist".[13] Further he deems 14 year-olds to have reached the age of "sexual maturity" and to be ready for marriage.[14] However, in a program he later appeared on, he said that he said those words for the victims in prison who is married years ago.
He is in favor of spiritual education and opposed to the teaching of evolution theory in Turkish schools as it would make them either members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or communists since the PKK also teaches this.[15]
Erbakan was a supporter of the anti-vax movement during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. He claimed COVID-19 vaccines could lead to people giving birth to "half-human, half-monkey" children.[16] During the early days on the pandemic, Erbakan suggested that "Zionism could very well be behind the coronavirus."[17]
Erbakan supports closing the Kürecik Radar Station, operated by NATO, saying the "intelligence shared with the US and the UK is directly used to protect Israel".[18]
Erbakan is fluent in English. He is married and has two children.