Kılıç had been appointed as the youngest member of the Turkish Cabinet in July 2011 by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when he was 38.

He has now been removed by Erdoğan and replaced by 37-year-old Akif Çağatay Kılıç, who was born in Germany before moving to Turkey with his family when he was 10 and educated at the University of Hertfordshire in Britain, where he graduated with a degree in Politics and European Studies.

The crisis had started on December 17 when dozens of people, including of the head of state-run Halkbank, were arrested on corruption charges.

Erdoğan responded by purging police investigators.

The ensuing feud with the judiciary reignited long-simmering street protests and unsettled  foreign investors.

Yesterday, three Ministers who had sons among those detained, resigned.

Two of them, Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan and  Interior Minister Muammer Güler, backed Erdoğan in claiming the inquiry was a conspiracy.

But the third, Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, has claimed Erdoğan should resign. 

The Prime Minister has responded by carrying out a major Cabinet reshuffle, sacking anyone he suspects of not being fully behind him.

Suat Kılıç (right) attended the IOC Session at Buenos Aires in September as a leading member of Istanbul's bid to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,(centre) who has sacked him in a Cabinet reshuffle ©Getty Images

Kılıç, a former television journalist, was a divisive figure during Istanbul's Olympic campaign, refusing to fully back it for a long period because he favoured a Turkish bid for the UEFA 2020 European Championships instead.

He also alienated several International Olympic Committee (IOC) members by what they perceived to be his arrogant attitude.

The Games were eventually awarded to Tokyo.

Istanbul's bid was eventually fatally undermined by the demonstrations that started in Istanbul in May, initially as protests against  an urban development plan for Taksim Gezi Park in the city.

But they quickly spread across Turkey protesting a wide range of concerns, at the core of which were issues of freedom of the press, of expression and the Government's encroachment on Turkey's secularism.
 
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