Hulusi Akar (born 12 March[citation needed] 1952) is a retired four-star Turkish Armed Forces general who served as the Minister of National Defense from 2018 to 2023.

[6] His doctoral thesis, which included the political and military developments in 1919 on the Turkish-American relations to the fore through American archive documents, was published as a book by the Turkish Historical Society under the title of "Harbord Military Mission Report: Studies an American Fact-Finding Mission Conducted and Their Impacts on Turkish-American Relations".

From 1993 until 1994, he was the Military Assistant to the Land Forces Commander, and also served as the Chief Public Information Officer.

[10] Upon his promotion to brigadier general in 1998, he commanded the Internal Security Brigade for two years, and then served as the Chief of Plans and Policy in AFSOUTH from 2000–2002.

[16] After his release he testified that one of his captors offered to put him on the phone with alleged coup figurehead Fethullah Gülen.

This was the first time in Turkey's history that a civilian government appointed an active duty military officer to this position.

[23] On 17 April 2022, Turkey launched Operation Claw-Lock against militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).