Meral Akşener was born on 18 July 1956, in the Gündoğdu neighborhood of İzmit, Kocaeli. Her father Tahir Ömer and her mother Sıddıka are Balkan Turks from Kato Ioniko village Xanthi. They were among hundreds of thousands who left Greece to resettle in Turkey in 1923. She studied history at Istanbul University and she completed her post-graduate studies at the Social Sciences Institute of Marmara University, earning a Ph.D. in history. She then worked as a lecturer at Yıldız Technical University, Kocaeli University and Marmara University before entering politics. Akşener has been described as a devout Muslim who prays regularly. She is known to her supporters as Asena, after the mythical she-wolf.
Politics
She quit her post as a university department chair in 1994 and entered politics with the general elections in 1995 as deputy of Istanbul Province with the True Path Party. Akşener was Minister of the Interior between 8 November 1996 and 30 June 1997, replacing Mehmet Ağar, who resigned as a result of his involvement in the Susurluk scandal. She was later forced out of office after the 1997 military memorandum. Akşener was re-elected to parliament in the 1999 general election as deputy of Kocaeli Province. Later, she was re-elected in the general elections of 2007 and 2011 representing Istanbul Province as a member of the Nationalist Movement Party. She was elected vice-speaker of the parliament alongside Güldal Mumcu, another female politician, serving at this post after Nermin Neftçi, who was elected in 1968 to be Turkey's first female vice-speaker. She split with the MHP leadership in 2016 over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's bid to transform Turkey’s constitution, and promised to start her own political party. She was a 2018 presidential candidate. She received 7.3% of the votes. She announced the foundation of the Good Party on 25 October 2017 and revealed its logo and aims. “I call it the movement of the brave,” she said. In her first address to her followers, Akşener stated she believed that Turkish democracy is "under threat" and the Good Party wants a free society and to fix the problems of the Turkish judiciary system. Akşener further stated the "media should not be under pressure. Democratic participation, a strong parliament and the national will are irreplaceable. We will democratize the law on political parties in the of contemporary democratic principles and the criteria of the Venice Commission." Aksener said that many who are joining her movement are young Turkish citizens who are "chafing under the restrictions" imposed by the government on public gatherings, freedom of expression, and constraints placed on the media.
