Australia: Victoria PM appoints Turkish-origin minister

By Recep Sakar

MELBOURNE (AA) - A Turkish-origin politician was appointed as minister in the Victoria government of southeastern Australia on Tuesday.

Daniel Andrews, Victoria premier and head of the Labour Party, won 52 of the 88 lawmakers against the opposition Liberal Party in last week's state elections, and announced the names of four new ministers to be assigned to his new cabinet.

Andrews appointed Adem Kubilay Somyurek, a Turkish origin politician and former Small Business Minister, to his cabinet. Somyurek’s assigned position is set to be announced later in the week.

11 women and 11 men will be in the new cabinet and Somyurek is one of them. There will be equality between men and women as well, Andrews said.

With the assignment of Somyurek, the Australian Turkish community will be represented by three lawmakers and one minister, as in the last four years of the Victorian Parliament.

In July 2015, Somyurek had been forced to resign from the cabinet as the small business minister following bullying allegations made by a staff member.

Somyurek was elected as a Labor Party lawmaker for Dandenon in the 2002 elections. He was born in Turkey’s Aegean Izmir province in 1967 and is married with two children.