Aytaç Durak was born in Karaisalı district of Adana Province in 1938 to a middle-class merchant family.
[1] He started his career in 1963 at State Hydraulic Works(DSİ) as Drinking Water Chief of Adana.
Later in his life, he founded a construction company (Durak İnşaat) with his 2 civil engineer brothers and, during the 1970s and early 1980s, he built over 2000 homes.
He served two terms as elected councillor and removed from the council by coup d'état on 12 September 1980, with all the other politicians in Turkey.
During the years that he was at the council, he formed the ideas that will later revolutionize the cityscape; expanding city to north and revitalizing Seyhan River and building large recreational areas around it.
During his first term as mayor, he expanded city to north by planning a modern residential district to house 200 thousand residents.
He constructed Adnan Menderes Boulevard along the south shores of Seyhan Reservoir and built parks, picnic areas around it.
The river which used to partially dry and have odour in summer times, revitalized and became the core recreational area of the city.
During this term, he also founded municipal-owned not-for-profit construction company which built thousands of homes for low-income residents.
He gave special attention to Dilberler Sekisi, most scenic part of the recreational pathway between the old and the new dam.
At this period, he also started building public pools for safe swimming mostly at low-income neighborhoods due the fact that nearly 100 children suffocate every year when chilling out at Seyhan river and irrigation canals during the hot and humid summers.
In late 2008, AK Party decided not to make Aytaç Durak their candidate for the 2009 municipal elections.
On 17 March 2010, Aytaç Durak resigned from MHP until being cleared from allegations for fortune building by raising the land value of his family property.
[3] On 28 March Aytaç Durak is suspended from mayoral duties by Ministry of Internal Affairs for two months.
Durak and his party MHP protested removal, stating that presidency ends naturally at Union's Directors' Elections by not being re-elected.
His son, Gökhan Durak, who is also a civil engineer, runs a local television (Çukurova TV) in Adana.
Durak likes spending his summer leisure times with his grand children at his cottage in Kızıldağ plateau of Karaisalı.
During the long greeting ceremonies of political parties, Durak considers kissing each member unhealthy and time consuming.