[1][2] Having his primary, secondary and high school education in Gaziantep, Melih Gökçek graduated from Gazi University, College of Journalism, in Ankara.

[3] Subsequently, Melih Gökçek ran the Social Services and Child Protection Society as its General Director from 1989 to 1991.

[3] He was re-elected in 1999 as the candidate of the Virtue Party and became the first person to be successively elected as the Mayor of Metropolitan Municipality for two times in the history of Ankara.

With Gökçek appearing to be one percentage point ahead of his rival Mansur Yavaş by the morning after the election, a massive campaign was started by the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to check all ballot box data.

[8] The decision was taken unanimously by the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE).

[11] The municipality of Turkey's capital city Ankara was also presented with the World Water Organization's (WWO) "Best Practice Award" with its "Kızılırmak River Project" on 8 April 2010.

[citation needed] The presidency city of the Association of Towns Awarded the Europe Prize has been carried out by Greater Ankara Municipality since 2011.

The Impact Awards recognize exemplary achievement in all facets of Internet marketing with a wide range of organizations of all sizes and business sectors represented.

Activists protested the city center being closed off completely from pedestrians[17][18][19][20][21] and declared that the mayor unilaterally taking such a decision was against the law.

[22] Gökçek also drew criticism after he replaced the middle four lanes of a major road to a new underpass and constructed a recreation complex on the over plot named Gökkuşağı ("Rainbow").

[25] The Department of Environmental Engineering of Middle East Technical University tested the water and concluded that the samples contained toxins and were not suitable for drinking.

In contrast to Gökçek's claims, interventions by police in Ankara against protesters were particularly violent,[31] resulting in a reprimand from the European Union and international condemnation.

[32] Also during the protests, Mellih Gökçek described BBC Turkey reporter Selin Girit as an "English spy", launching a campaign against her on Twitter.

Gökçek backed the singer's Gaza tweets, retweeting most of her comments except the one on Hitler, calling them "full of intelligence.

[35] In March 2015, Gökçek filed a formal complaint on defamation charges against journalist Hayko Bağdat because he called him an Armenian.