Tuncay Mataracı

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Tuncay Mataracı
Minister of Customs and Monopolies
In office
5 January 1978 – 12 November 1979
Prime MinisterBülent Ecevit
Preceded byGün Sazak
Succeeded byAhmet Çakmak
Personal details
Born(1935-02-02)2 February 1935
Rize, Turkey
Died17 December 2020(2020-12-17) (aged 85)
Istanbul
Cause of deathCOVID-19
Resting placeZincirlikuyu Cemetery
Political partyJustice Party
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionCivil engineer
Cabinet42nd government of Turkey

Tuncay Mataracı (2 February 1935 – 17 December 2020) was a Turkish politician and government minister.[1]

Early life and education[edit]

Tuncay Mataracı was born on 2 February 1935 in Rize, Turkey.[2] His father is Mehmet Tevfik Mataracı.[2] He finished his primary and secondary education in his hometown. After graduating from high school in Trabzon, Mataracı started to study law at the university. However, he dropped out and discontinued his education after a while. He then studied at a civil engineering college, and obtained a certificate as a construction technician.[2][3]

Mataracı served as manager of Village Public Works Services in Rize Province before he became an executive of the Tea Planters' Cooperation and later head of Province Physical Education Directorate.[2][3]

Politician career[edit]

Tuncay Mataracı entered politics and was elected deputy of Rize Province from Justice Party at the 1977 general election.[4] With the forming of a coalition cabinet by Bülent Ecevit, he was appointed Minister of Customs and Monopolies in the 42nd government on January 5, 1978.[2][3]

Responsible also for state monopoly of tea trade in Turkey and proficient in tea processing from his former employment, Mataracı changed the tea leaf picking policy which was rigorously enforced.[3] The picking of tea leaves was allowed to be done only by hand in Turkey in order to achieve a good quality tea product.[3][5] However, hand picking did not allow reasonable profit for the tea planters in Rize due to the high labor costs.[3] Mataracı lifted the ban on tea leaf picking by tool, and this was much welcomed in his hometown.[3][6]

On 12 November 1979, the cabinet dissolved and Mataracı's term as a minister ended.[2]

Conviction[edit]

On 27 April 1981, the National Security Council (Turkish: Milli Güvenlik Kurulu, MGK), the military junta, which had staged the 1980 military coup on 12 September put Tuncay Mataracı on trial at the Supreme Court (Turkish: Yüce Divan).[7][8][9] The trial began on 15 June 1981.[7] Mataracı was accused of bribery[10][11] and abuse of power during his office term as government minister along with 21 co-defendants, among them former Minister of Public Works, Şerafettin Elçi,[8][12][13] and a mobster, Abuzer Uğurlu.[7][10][11] On 16 March 1982, the Supreme Court sentenced Mataracı to 36 years of aggravated imprisonment,[11][9] a fine of ₺787,386,166 Turkish lira, life banishment from government office and driver's license revocation for six-years.[7][12][13][14] Of the co-defendants, only Şerafettin Elçi was acquitted while all others were convicted to various terms of imprisonment between ten months and six years.[7][8][12][13] Mataracı's punishment was the most severe of any government minister in Turkey.[3]

Mataracı was incarcerated in Kayseri Prison.[15] Upon the Law #4616 on Parole enacted in 1991, he was released from the prison.[16][15] The high amount of fine, which he did not pay in the beginning[15] vanished into thin air.[15] When he paid the fine in 1993, it had lost value due to high inflation rate.[15]

In an interview made with a local daily in Rize in March 2013, he stated that he is the only banned politician left, and the ban would terminate at the end of 2013.[3]

Death[edit]

Mataracı died from COVID-19 in Istanbul, on 17 December 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. He was interred at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery the next day.[17]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Eski Gümrük ve Tekel Bakanı ve eski milletvekili Tuncay Mataracı corona virüsünden hayatını kaybetti". Sözcü. 17 December 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "42. Hükümet Kabine Üyeleri" (in Turkish). T.C. Başbakanlık. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Tuncay Mataracı Kimdir?". Rizedeyiz (in Turkish). 26 March 2012. Archived from the original on 25 February 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  4. ^ "1977 Genel Seçimleri - 16. Dönem Rize İli Milletvekilleri". Konrad (in Turkish). Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  5. ^ "Tea producing process". Ceylon Black Tea. Archived from the original on 18 February 2009. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  6. ^ LUO, Yao-ping; TANG, Meng; CAI, Wei-zhi; WEN, Dong-hua; WEN, Zheng-jun (January 2008), "Study on the Optimum Machine-plucking Period for High Quality Tea", Journal of Tea Science
  7. ^ a b c d e "Yüce Divan'da yargılanan bakanlar". Hürriyet (in Turkish). 13 July 2004. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  8. ^ a b c "Supreme Court will dominate Parliament's agenda in autumn". Hürriyet Daily News. 6 July 2003. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  9. ^ a b "Yargıtay tarihinde bir ilk!". Sabah (in Turkish). 26 July 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  10. ^ a b Fuat Akyol (4 December 1999). "Babaların sonu, reislerin yükselişi". Aksiyon (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 28 July 2013. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  11. ^ a b c Howe, Marvine (12 December 1982). "Turks Careful In Italian Inquiry On Pope's Shooting". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  12. ^ a b c "Yüce Divan Kararları" (in Turkish). T.C. Anayasa Mahkemesi. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  13. ^ a b c "Yüce Divan'da 1 başbakan, 15 bakan yargılandı". NTV MSNBC (in Turkish). 5 October 2007. Archived from the original on 25 December 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  14. ^ "Yüce Divan'da kimler yargılandı?". Akşam (in Turkish). 16 January 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  15. ^ a b c d e Altaylı, Fatih (29 September 2001). "Very Important Sabıkalı". Hürriyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  16. ^ Altunsoy, İsmail (15 January 2002). "Gece hayatının ve çevrenin cezasını çektim". Zaman (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 18 February 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  17. ^ "Eski Gümrük ve Tekel Bakanı Mataracı son yolculuğuna uğurlandı". Milliyet (in Turkish). 18 December 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
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