Background
He was born on January 9, 1955 in Kozlukebir village of Komotini (Turkish: Gümülcine) to father Ali and his wife Fatma, a family from the Turkish minority in Greece.
He was born on January 9, 1955 in Kozlukebir village of Komotini (Turkish: Gümülcine) to father Ali and his wife Fatma, a family from the Turkish minority in Greece.
He studied in an İmam Hatip school, where he met Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was his classmate. Müezzinoğlu completed his medical specialisation in internal medicine at Haseki Hospital in 1986 after graduating from Cerrahpaşa Medicine Faculty of Istanbul University in 1982.
Müezzinoğlu went to Istanbul for his high school education. In 1983, Müezzinoğlu immigrated from Greece illegally by crossing the river Maritsa (Turkish: Meriç). Before acquiring Turkish citizenship in 1986, he lived in Turkey as a heimatlos between 1983 and 1986.
Before entering politics, he worked as a physician in a private hospital he co-founded in Avcılar district of Istanbul Province.
Between 2002 and 2007, he served as the chairman of the Justice and Development Party"s Istanbul Province organization. He was reelected to the parliament in the 2011 general election, this time as deputy for Edirne.
On January 24, 2013, Mehmet Müezzinoğlu was appointed as Minister of Health in the cabinet of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, replacing Recep Akdağ. in Turkey, several makeshift infirmaries were erected to treat victims of the violence. The injuries included trauma from plastic bullets and teargas canisters.
In response to this, Müezzinoğlu declared that "he infirmaries around the protest areas are illegal.
This is ideologic and it"s an execution violating the legal structure. There will be legal action taken against the medics working in those infirmaries.".
Müezzinoğlu became a member of the Islamist Welfare Party (Turkish: Refah Partisi, RP) in 1992, where he helped to make policy alongside Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
In his social life, he is a member of various associations and foundations related to Western Thrace Turks. He was elected as member of parliament for Istanbul Province in the 2007 general election.