Bulent Ecevit

Bülent Ecevit was a Turkish politician, statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist, who served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002. He was the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) from 1972 to 1980, and the founder and leader of the Democratic Left Party (DSP) from 1987 to 2004. He is known for being Turkey's only leftist prime minister and for ordering the Cyprus Peace Operation in 1974. Ecevit was born in Istanbul in 1925 to a middle-class family. His father was a physician and a member of parliament, and his mother was a painter. He graduated from Robert College in Istanbul and studied literature, art history, and Sanskrit at the universities of Ankara, London, and Harvard. He began his career as a journalist and joined the CHP in 1954. He was elected to the parliament in 1957 and became the Minister of Labour in 1961. He introduced significant labour reforms, such as the right to strike and collective bargaining. He also advocated for a "left-of-center" orientation for the CHP, which aimed to address the social and economic problems of the country. Ecevit became the leader of the CHP in 1972, after the resignation of İsmet İnönü. He led the party to victory in the 1973 and 1977 elections, forming coalition governments with various parties. He also faced several challenges, such as the 1971 military memorandum, the 1974 Cyprus crisis, the 1978 Kahramanmaraş massacre, the 1979 oil crisis, and the rise of political violence and terrorism. He was ousted from power by the 1980 military coup, which banned him and his party from politics. He spent four months in prison and was later released. Ecevit returned to politics in 1987, after the ban was lifted. He founded the DSP and became its leader. He initially struggled to gain popular support, but his party gradually increased its votes in the 1990s. He formed a coalition government with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Motherland Party (ANAP) in 1999, after the DSP won the most seats in the parliament. He pursued a pro-European Union and pro-democracy agenda, as well as a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue. He also faced the 1999 İzmit earthquake, the 2001 economic crisis, and the 2002 Iraq War. He lost the 2002 election, as his party failed to pass the 10% electoral threshold. He resigned from the DSP leadership in 2004 and retired from politics. Ecevit was also a poet, writer, and translator. He published several books of poetry, essays, and memoirs, as well as translations of Rabindranath Tagore, T. S. Eliot, and Walt Whitman. He was married to Rahşan Ecevit, who was also a politician and the co-founder of the DSP. He had no children. He died in 2006, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. He is buried at the Turkish State Cemetery in Ankara.