Vedat Dalokay

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Vadet Dalokay
Mayor of Ankara
In office
10 December 1973 – 12 December 1977
Preceded byEkrem Barlas
Succeeded byAli Dinçer
Personal details
Born
Vedat Ali Dalokay

10 November 1927
Elazığ, Turkey
Died21 March 1991(1991-03-21) (aged 63)
Kırıkkale, Turkey
Political partyRepublican People's Party
Workers' Party
Unity Party
Socialist Workers' Party
Party of the Socialist Revolution
Populist Party
Party of Social Democracy
Social Democratic Populist Party
People's Labour Party
Alma materIstanbul Technical University
OccupationArchitect

Vedat Dalokay (10 November 1927 – 21 March 1991) was a renowned Kurdish architect and a former mayor of Ankara.

Early life and education

He was born in Elazığ in 1927 to İbrahim Bey from Pertek.[1] He was an Alevi Kurd.[2] He completed his elementary and secondary education in Elazığ. Then he left for Istanbul where he graduated from the faculty of architecture of Istanbul Technical University in 1949.[3] His lecturers there were Clemens Holzmeister and Paul Bonatz.[3] In 1950 he settled to Paris to begin post-graduate studies at the City Planning Department of the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, but then did not graduate.[3]

Career

Faisal Masjid in Islamabad, Pakistan was designed by Vedat Dalokay

Following his graduation in 1949, he entered the Ministry of Works and the Post and Telecommunications Department.[3]

In the 1973 Turkish local elections, he was elected as the mayor of Ankara from the Republican People's Party (CHP).[3] In 1975, Dalokay requested assistance from the Soviet Union to build a public transportation system and affordable housing in Ankara.[4] In 1977 Dalokay and other CHP mayors, including İstanbul mayor Ahmet İsvan and İzmit mayor Erol Köse issued a declaration on municipal socialism.[5]

Dalokay served as mayor of Ankara until the 1977 Turkish local elections and was replaced by another CHP member, Ali Dinçer in the post.

Awards and work

Along with numerous national award-winning projects in Turkey, Dalokay has been awarded internationally for the Islamic Development Bank (1981) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

His design for the Kocatepe Mosque in the Turkish capital, Ankara was selected in the architectural competition in 1957 but, as a result of controversial criticism, was not built.[6] Later, a modified design was used as a basis for the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan.[3] In Pakistan, he was also the architect of two not realized buildings, then of the constricted monument Summit Minar, Lahore and is considered a major Turkish influence in Pakistani architecture.[3]

Death

Vedat Dalokay passed away with his wife Ayçe Dalokay (aged 64) in a traffic accident near Kırıkkale on 21 March 1991. His son Barış Dalokay (aged 17), who was injured in the accident, also died on 27 March 1991.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Vedat Dalokay". Archived from the original on 18 December 2011. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  2. ^ "An Alevi Kurd built the famous mosque in Pakistan".
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Naz, Neelum (2005). "Contribution of Turkish Architects to the National Architecture of Pakistan" (PDF). pp. 53–54. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2007.
  4. ^ Hirst, Samuel J.; Khajei, Aydın; Kaptan, Deniz (2023). "A Turkish Mayor Goes to Moscow: Vedat Dalokay and Development Politics in the 1970s". Journal of Contemporary History. 58 (4): 739–758. doi:10.1177/00220094231195768. ISSN 0022-0094.
  5. ^ İpek Sakarya (Fall 2016). "Türkiye'de Toplumcu Belediyecilik Hareketi Ekseninde Çanakkale'de Yerel Siyaset (1968-1980)". Çanakkale Araştırmaları Türk Yıllığı (in Turkish). 14 (21): 139.
  6. ^ "The Kocatepe Mosque Complex" (PDF). Diyanet. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 May 2008.

Sources

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of Ankara
1973–1977
Succeeded by