Hasan Gülay

Hasan Gülay was born on 15 February 1946 in Akhisar, a town in Manisa Province in western Turkey. His father was Mustafa and his mother Emine. According to his official parliamentary biography, he completed primary school in Gölmarmara and then attended Akhisar Ali Şefik Middle School and Akhisar High School.

After finishing school he went to Istanbul to study at the chemistry faculty of Yıldız Technical University, and he graduated as a chemical engineer in 1972.

Gülay began his working life in 1972 as an engineer at Petrol Ofisi, the state fuel distribution company, where he stayed until 1976. From 1976 to 1995 he worked first at the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) and then at TÜPRAŞ, the national refining company, in engineering and management roles. By the mid 1990s he was planning coordinator at the TÜPRAŞ refinery in Kırıkkale.

In 1995 he moved into politics. At the general election of 24 December 1995 he was elected a member of the Grand National Assembly for Manisa on the list of the Democratic Left Party (DSP), led by Bülent Ecevit, and entered the 20th parliament. He was re-elected for Manisa in the 1999 election and sat in the 21st parliament. During his time in the assembly he chaired the National Defence Committee, and he also served as secretary general of the DSP.

He used his seat to press the interests of his home district. On 12 August 1999 he submitted a bill, registered as number 2/281, to create a new province named Akhisar, which local media still cite as one of the most concrete attempts to give the town provincial status.

In 2002, when İsmail Cem and other deputies left the DSP to found the New Turkey Party (YTP), Gülay joined them, and the parliament's records list him as a YTP deputy for Manisa when the term ended with the general election of November 2002. Some agency reports of his funeral described him as a True Path Party deputy, but the official parliamentary biography records that he was elected for the DSP.

Gülay spoke French and English. His parliamentary biography and the reports of his death describe him as married with one child; the names of his wife and child were not given in official records. He kept close ties with Akhisar and Manisa throughout his life, and news of his death was received with sadness there, according to local media.

Hasan Gülay died in Ankara at the age of 80 from illnesses related to old age. Reports of his death and funeral were published on 19 October 2026 by the Demirören News Agency, the İhlas News Agency, Habertürk and Milli Gazete; they did not give the exact date, which Wikidata records as 17 October 2026.

On Monday 19 October 2026 a ceremony was held for him at the Grand National Assembly. His coffin, wrapped in the Turkish flag, was carried by officials to the steps of the parliament's ceremonial gate. His biography was read, a minute of silence was observed and prayers were said. The ceremony was attended by his family and friends, Özgür Özel, leader of the Yeni Parti, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People's Party, Erkan Akçay of the Nationalist Movement Party, the former Speaker Bülent Arınç, deputies and parliamentary staff, and the family received condolences there. After funeral prayers at the Kurşunlu Gölbaşı Cemetery Mosque he was buried at Gölbaşı Cemetery in Ankara.

Gülay is remembered as one of the engineers who moved from Turkey's state energy sector into parliament in the 1990s, and as a senior figure in Bülent Ecevit's Democratic Left Party during the years it led the governing coalition. His chairmanship of the National Defence Committee and his role as the party's secretary general made him one of its senior office holders in that period.

In Akhisar he is remembered above all for his 1999 bill to make the town a province, which local media described after his death as an important example of the efforts to change its administrative status. The ceremonial farewell held for him at the parliament, attended by leaders from across the political spectrum, reflected the respect he retained among former colleagues.