British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was born on June 19, 1964 in the United States. It is known that the grandfathers of Boris Johnson, who previously served as London mayor and British foreign minister, were Turkish. So who is Boris Johnson, how old is he?
Boris Johnson, son of Stanley Johnson, grandson of Ali Kemal, who served as Minister of Internal Affairs in the last period of the Ottoman Empire, is a British conservative politician and journalist.
After graduating from Oxford University, she started her career at The Times. He later moved to The Daily Telegraph, where he was assistant editor. He became editor of The Spectator in 1999. He was elected to the House of Commons in the 2001 General Elections and took his place among the country's leading politicians.
He was elected Mayor of London on May 1, 2008, in the local elections of the British Conservative Party while he was MP for Henley, and he continued this duty until the 2016 local elections. He was appointed as UK Foreign Secretary by Theresa May, who succeeded David Cameron as prime minister on 13 July 2016.
Ottoman grandson
Boris Johnson, 57, is the son of Stanley Johnson, grandson of the murdered Ottoman Empire's last Minister of Internal Affairs (Interior Minister) Ali Kemal. Ali Kemal's father, Hacı Ahmet Rıza Efendi, who was the Minister of Education (Education) and Internal Affairs in the Damat Ferit Pasha governments, was born in 1813 in the Kalfat village of Çankırı.
A former journalist, Boris Johnson's political career began with his election to parliament in 2001. Johnson, who served as mayor of London, winning twice from 2008-2016, was at the forefront of campaigning for the UK to leave the European Union (EU) in the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Johnson, who was foreign minister for nearly two years in Prime Minister Theresa May's government, resigned on July 9, 2018.
A year later, he won the leadership race in the Conservative Party following Theresa May's resignation and became prime minister. It was Boris Johnson's biggest dream to one day become prime minister of the UK.
Journalist first, politician later
The British prime minister, whose full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, was born on 19 June 1964 in New York City. After graduating from Eton College, he was educated at Oxford University.
Boris Johnson's journalism career, which began as a reporter for the Times in 1987, later continued in the conservatively-leaning Daily Telegraph.
Johnson also served as editor of the conservatively-leaning Spectator magazine from 1999 to 2005. He appeared on the BBC's talk show "Have I Got News for You".
He narrowly won the Mayor of London Mayoralty from Labor candidate Ken Livingstone in 2008, serving two terms until 2016.
The Conservative Party, of which Johnson is a member, won the 2010 election in England, ending the 13-year Labor Party term. The Conservative Party, which formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrat Party in 2010, came to power alone in the 2015 election. Johnson was re-elected MP that same year.
In the 2016 Brexit referendum on the country's EU membership in the UK, Johnson was one of the leaders of the pro-leaving campaign.
Immigration warning from Turkey in Brexit campaign
Before the referendum on the continuation of the UK's EU membership in 2016, he wrote two different articles for his column in the Daily Telegraph, both in favor of staying in the EU and leaving (Brexit), with the belief that he would be more advantageous in the leadership race against party leader Cameron. It was said that he took a stance towards it.
In addition, during the Brexit campaign, Johnson stated in many statements to gather votes that Turkish immigration poses a threat to the UK. When asked later, Johnson denied making such statements.
However, a week before the referendum, Johnson had argued in a letter he wrote to pro-Brexit Michael Gove and then-Prime Minister David Cameron that the only way to protect Britain from a mass immigration from Turkey was to leave the EU.
In a speech he gave in April 2016, he said, "I'm extremely pro-Turkish, but I can't imagine my 77 million Turkish friends and people of Turkish descent coming here without any control. That would be crazy. It won't work."
During his candidacy for the Conservative Party leader, a lawsuit was filed against Boris Johnson. Johnson was charged with "false statements" and "misuse of public office" prior to the 2016 Brexit referendum.
In his first speech after gaining the leadership of the Conservative Party, Boris Johnson promised to wrap up the Brexit process, defeat the then leader of the Labor Party, Jeremy Corbyn in the next general election, and end the polarization in the country.
Johnson managed to keep two of these promises.
The Conservative Party, led by Johnson, won a clear victory in the last general election held on December 12, 2019, and sent 80 deputies to the House of Commons.
For the party, which received 43.6 percent of the vote, this was the most spectacular victory since 1979.
As promised, Boris Johnson completed the Brexit process, which envisages the exit of the UK from the European Union, on January 31, 2020.
Johnson's words, "A large number of people come to England from all over the EU, which has a population of 580 million, and they treat it as if it is their own country. The problem is that there is no control over it," was described as anti-immigrant by the dissidents.
Pandemic exam
The coronavirus pandemic marked the second term of the prime ministership, which started after Boris Johnson won the elections.
Boris Johnson was accused of not taking the situation seriously and making contradictory statements in the first months of the epidemic.
The UK has become the latest country in Europe to close schools, cancel public meetings and initiate a shutdown.
Britain was one of the leading countries in the list of deaths due to coronavirus, and it was thought that Johnson's very slow transition to quarantine was effective in this.
In March 2020, on the day when scientists warned the public not to shake hands and observe social distancing, Boris Johnson's handshake with patients he visited in a hospital created great controversy. In the days that followed, Johnson continued to mingle with the public and shake hands.
Demanding the closure of bars, restaurants, gyms, museums and galleries, Johnson announced these injunctions with some sadness, saying, "We are taking away people's innate right to go to bars in the UK."
A week later, it was announced that the Prime Minister had contracted the coronavirus. Johnson's condition worsened and he was taken to intensive care.
Boris Johnson, who was released from intensive care in April 2020, returned to work two weeks later.
Boris Johnson said that while he was in the hospital, he was given oxygen support and that doctors were preparing for his death.
Party scandal
The event that brought Boris Johnson, who faced repeated calls to resign during his rule, with a vote of confidence, became a party scandal.
After it was revealed that at least 17 parties were held in the Prime Minister's Residence during the period of Covid restrictions in the UK, the issue began to be called "partygate", that is, a party scandal.
The results of the official investigation into Prime Minister Boris Johnson's participation and connivance to these parties were made public last month.
Sue Gray, the senior bureaucrat who conducted the investigation, concluded that the parties in question violated the rules and bans set by the government itself and that the responsibility especially belongs to the highest level politicians and bureaucrats.
"I take full responsibility," said Boris Johnson, who nevertheless denied accusations that he had misled parliament, publicly apologizing but refused to resign.
Wanting to put the party scandal behind him and saying, "Let's do our business," Boris Johnson failed to placate the opposition within the Conservative Party.
At the time of the parties, gatherings of more than two people in a home environment were prohibited in most areas. Various restrictions were still in effect outdoors.
On May 20, 2020, about 100 people were invited to a party in the garden of the Prime Minister's Residence. Invitees were asked to follow social distancing rules and bring their drinks.
Some of those who witnessed the party told the BBC that about 30 people attended the party, and Johnson and his then-fiancée, Carrie Symonds, were also there.
Johnson confirmed he was attending for 25 minutes, but said he attended the party "thinking it was a business event".
On 19 June 2020, they gathered again at the Prime Minister's Residence to celebrate Johnson's birthday and cut a cake. Prime Ministry employees claimed that the celebration lasted less than 10 minutes.
December 2020 was the tightest time of Covid restrictions in London. During this period and in the months that followed, it became clear that several more parties were organized in the office of the ruling Conservative Party.
In December, when the party scandal first began to be heard, Boris Johnson denied all news and allegations in this direction for a week.
It was revealed that on April 16, 2021, two parties were held that broke the Covid rules, one day before the funeral of Prince Philip, the wife of Queen Elizabeth II.
Yet the country was in mourning at this time, with the flag at Buckingham Palace at half-mast.
After all this came to light, Johnson, who held a vote of confidence at the request of his party's deputies, managed to get through this, too.
Political blunders, pots and lies
Before Boris Johnson began climbing the ladder of his political career, he was a frequent television journalist.
His friend, journalist Rod Liddle, once described Boris with these words: "Boris, like all politicians, has to talk nonsense from time to time. But unlike the others, Boris can't do it without color."
Thanks to this feature, which is cute to the British people, Boris Johnson managed to get away with all the pots he broke and the blunders that would have ended his career if another politician made it.
For example, in 2016, he sent a poem he wrote to the "poetry contest insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan" opened by Spectator magazine and was announced as the winner of the contest.
Erdogan was among the first leaders to congratulate him when he became Minister of Foreign Affairs shortly after that.
In addition, during the Brexit campaign, Johnson had stated in many statements to gather votes that 'Turkish immigration poses a threat to the UK'. When asked later, Johnson denied making such statements.
During his candidacy for the Conservative Party leader, a lawsuit was filed against Boris Johnson. Johnson was charged with "false statements" and "misuse of public office" prior to the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Here are a few other major incidents where Boris Johnson was accused of lying:
Writing untrue articles about the European Union while working for the Daily Telegraph in Brussels,
Reflecting the events of the Hillsborough disaster differently when he was the editor of The Spectator,
Lying to the then prime minister, Michael Howard, about his extramarital affair,
Arguing that Britain's departure from the EU would save the health system NHS £350m a week,
To say that he did not know about the parties held at the Prime Minister's Residence during the coronavirus epidemic.
Appointment made despite allegations of harassment
The development that ended the prime ministership of Boris Johnson, whose political career was full of ups and downs, was a series of sexual harassment allegations against the Conservative Party's parliamentary group vice chairman Chris Pincher.
Johnson publicly apologized on July 6 for appointing Pincher as the party's acting group chairman, despite being told that Chris Pincher had filed a harassment complaint against him.
Johnson said the complaint was forwarded to him in 2019 and that his failure to act was "a bad mistake".
However, this was not enough to appease the opposition within the party. Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and Health Minister Sajid Javid announced their resignation from their posts.
After 50 more resignations followed, Boris Johnson was backed into a corner and had to give in to calls for his resignation.
A nearly 40-year, gravity-defying political career was thus turned upside down.
But who can guarantee that Boris Johnson will not return to the political scene?