Celal Bayar

Celâl Bayar was a Turkish economist and politician who served as the third president of Turkey from 1950 to 1960. He was also the prime minister of Turkey from 1937 to 1939. He began his career in the Committee of Union and Progress, a nationalist and reformist political party that played a key role in the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 and the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923. He was a close associate of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president of Turkey, and supported his vision of modernizing and secularizing the country. He was instrumental in founding many of Turkey's early financial institutions, such as the İş Bankası, the Central Bank of Turkey, and the Sümerbank. He also initiated etatism, or a state-directed economy, in the 1930s to promote industrialization and development. He resigned as prime minister in 1939 after a disagreement with Atatürk's successor, İsmet İnönü, over economic and foreign policies. He then became the leader of the opposition, forming the Democrat Party in 1946 with Adnan Menderes, Fuat Köprülü, and Refik Koraltan. The Democrat Party advocated for a more liberal and democratic system, as well as a free market economy. In 1950, the Democrat Party won the first free and fair elections in Turkey's history, ending the single-party rule of the Republican People's Party. Bayar was elected as the third president of Turkey, while Menderes became the prime minister. Bayar was re-elected in 1954 and 1957, serving for a total of 10 years as president. During his presidency, Turkey experienced rapid economic growth, social reforms, and cultural development. He also pursued a pro-Western foreign policy, joining NATO in 1952 and participating in the Korean War. However, his administration also faced several challenges, such as the 1955 Istanbul pogrom against the Greek minority, the 1958 Cyprus crisis, and the 1959 Adana incidents. He also faced growing criticism from the opposition and the military over his authoritarian tendencies, corruption, and mismanagement of the economy. In 1960, he was overthrown and arrested by a military coup led by the National Unity Committee. He was sentenced to death along with Menderes and other members of his party, but his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. He was released in 1964 due to ill health and pardoned in 1966. He spent the rest of his life in Istanbul, where he died in 1986 at the age of 103. He was buried in his hometown of Umurbey, Bursa, in a mausoleum built in his honor. He is regarded as one of the most influential and controversial figures in Turkish history, and his legacy is still debated among scholars and the public.