Fethi Okyar

Ali Fethi Okyar (29 April 1880 – 7 May 1943) was a Turkish diplomat and politician, who also served as a military officer and diplomat during the last decade of the Ottoman Empire. He was also the second Prime Minister of Turkey (1924–1925) and the second Speaker of the Turkish Parliament after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Biography
He was born in the Ottoman town of Prilep in Manastir Vilayet (present-day North Macedonia) to an Albanian family. Some sources also claim that he was of Circassian descent. He attended the Monastir Military High School, where he was a friend of Mustafa Kemal, helping him with French and introducing him to French political thought. In 1913, he joined the Committee of Union and Progress (İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti) and was elected as the secretary general. In 1924 he was appointed Prime Minister as the successor of İsmet İnönü. But only a few months later in March 1925 he was replaced again by İnönü as a more decisive policy was needed to suppress the Sheikh Said rebellion. Following he was appointed the Turkish ambassador to France in Paris. In 1930, he received the permission to establish the Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası (Liberal Republican Party), an early party of opposition. However, when the government noticed the support of this opposition party among Islamists, it was declared illegal and closed down, a situation similar to that of the Progressive Republican Party, which had lasted for a few months in 1924. He later served as Justice Minister from 1939 to 1941.