site.btaTurkish President Replaces Head of Presidency of Religious Affairs

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has appointed a new President of Religious Affairs. By a decision dated September 17, which was published in the Turkish State Gazette, Prof. Dr. Safi Arpagus is now the President of the Diyanet. He succeeds the previous President, Prof. Dr. Ali Erbas, whose term in office has expired.

Until his appointment, Arpagus was the Mufti of Istanbul Province.

He was born in 1967 in Gumushacikoy, Amasya district. In 1990, he graduated from the Faculty of Theology at Marmara University in Istanbul, where he began his academic career. He defended his dissertation in 2001, became an associate professor in 2008, and a professor in 2014. From 2011 to 2021, he was deputy dean of the Faculty of Theology at Marmara University.