 After he returned from military service, Gökçek set up a business.Then, as a member of the Motherland Party, he acted from 1984 to 1989 as the Mayor of Keçiören, a district in Ankara, under the leadership of the Mayor of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, Mehmet Altinsoy.Subsequently Melih Gökçek ran the Social Services and Child Protection Society as its General Director from 1989 to 1991.