Mustafa Akaydın (born 24 April 1952, in Çorum) is a Turkish politician of the Republican People's Party (CHP), who served as the mayor of Antalya, Turkey. Prior to his political career, Akaydın held positions as a professor, general surgeon and a rector of Akdeniz University.

Mustafa Akaydın was born in 1952 and received his primary and secondary education in Ankara and Istanbul. He graduated from the Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in 1975.

Akaydın became a General Surgery Specialist at the Ankara University Medical Science Faculty in 1979. In 1980, he became a lecturer at Akdeniz University. In the following years, he became associate professor in 1984 and then professor in 1992. He also participated in a one-year training in Germany and the United States, in organ transplants and breast surgery.

From 1988 to 1990, Akaydın served as chairman of the Antalya Chamber of Doctors.

Akaydın worked as vice-rector of Akdeniz University from 1996 until 2004, and later as rector from 2004 to 2008. As rector, he took a firm stance on the university's headscarf ban.^[1] He also served on the Inter-University Committee between the years of 2000 and 2008, becoming the committee's chairman in the last two years of his membership.

On 1 December 2008 Akaydın entered politics. He stood in the 2009 local elections as a candidate of the Republican People's Party, winning the mayorship of Antalya with 42.34% of the vote. He succeeded Menderes Türel of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).^[1][2]

Akaydın is married, and he has two children and one grandchild.^[9]