The Turkey international fired home an 85th-minute clincher just as it looked as though the visitors, who had midfielder Amdy Faye sent off 10 minutes before the break, had staged a magnificent fightback.
On a dramatic afternoon at the Riverside Stadium, £12.7million striker Afonso Alves had made the most of Faye's wild challenge on Mohamed Shawky by firing the resulting free-kick past Thomas Sorensen, and England international Stewart Downing should have wrapped up the win with a 64th-minute penalty but hit the bar.
On another day Alves might have claimed a hat-trick and his strike partner, Tuncay, was also guilty of a bad miss as Gareth Southgate's side recovered from an indifferent start to dominate for long periods.
However, they could not kill the Potters off and when Justin Hoyte turned Liam Lawrence's cross into his own net with 19 minutes remaining, the visitors looked to have got their reward for a committed display in front of a crowd of 27,627.
So concerned was Southgate by Stoke's aerial prowess, he had employed one of the club's youngsters in training to reproduce Rory Delap's long throw in an effort to prepare his defenders for an onslaught.
In the event the ploy was academic as the promoted side produced the better football in the first half when the misfiring Teessiders struggled to find any rhythm.
Indeed, City would almost certainly have gone in level at the break - and deservedly so - had their luck not changed so devastatingly.
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