Mehmet Mehdi Eker is Minister of Agriculture of Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 and Member of Parliament for Diyarbakır

Diyarbakır

Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...

 of the ruling party, Justice and Development Party (Turkey)

Justice and Development Party (Turkey)

The Justice and Development Party , abbreviated JDP in English and AK PARTİ or AKP in Turkish, is a centre-right political party in Turkey. The party is the largest in Turkey, with 327 members of parliament...

.

A veterinarian and agro-economist he had a career as a civil servant in the ministry of agriculture before entering politics at the age of 46. He speaks Kurdish

Kurdish language

Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....

 and has travelled to Diyarbakır with the Minister of Interior during periods of unrest in south-east Turkey, where Turkey-PKK conflict is ongoing.

As minister of Agriculture he has had to deal with issues including:

• The bird flu epidemic of 2005, in which he made a statement that it was safe to eat cooked chicken and then famously refused to do so on television.
• Adjusting food control regulations to comply with EU norms, including recategorising pork and horsemeat as suitable for human consumption.