Bülent Ecevit

Mustafa Bülent Ecevit ( born May 28, 1925 in İstanbul, † November 5, 2006 in Ankara) was a politician of democratic socialism in Turkey and a journalist, writer and poet. Originally Ecevit worked as a journalist, then turned to politics and was four times the Turkish Prime Minister.

Life and work

Youth

His father Ahmet Fahri Ecevit was Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Ankara and his mother Fatma Nazlı was among the first women in Turkey, who worked as an independent painters. He attended the American Robert College in Istanbul, where many graduates of the English-speaking elite of his country were trained until 1944. Ecevit took later further lectures at foreign universities, including Harvard University. In 1946 he married his wife Rahsan Aral, which he had met at the Robert College.

At the beginning of his professional life he worked from 1946 to 1950 as a press attaché at the Turkish Embassy in London. He then worked for the party newspaper Ulus Gazetesi the CHP ( Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi ). Mid-1950s, he reached with the help of a grant from the U.S. Department of State to the Winston -Salem Journal and Sentinel in North Carolina. Ecevit was dismayed by the everyday racism in the American South. Upon his return to Turkey in 1955, he joined the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, which was even founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Policy

In 1957 he was elected a deputy of the Turkish Parliament. From 1961 to 1965 Ecevit served as Minister of Labour. From 1966 to 1971 he was General Secretary of the Republican People's Party and subsequently its chairman until 1980 with the help of his mentor, İsmet İnönü, Atatürk tightest political allies.

In early 1974 he was appointed first time as prime minister. After riots ( Enosis movement) in Cyprus he had in July of the same year Northern and Eastern Cyprus by the Turkish army are taking. Ecevit complaining that this 40% of the island as a Turkish possession, which was not recognized by other states. In 1975 his government, a coalition led by Süleyman Demirel, he again replaced as Prime Minister in 1977 and from 1978 to 1979. After bloody political and religious unrest imposed Ecevit end of 1978 on the southeast, Ankara and Istanbul martial law. It was not lifted until 1984.

With the support of the unions and some left-wing associations succeeded Ecevit to be elected twice in the 1970s as prime minister. He therefore supported generous social programs, advocated a major influence of the state in the economy and pushed for high protective tariffs against dumping imports.

After the third military coup by General Kenan Evren in 1980 Ecevit was arrested several times and lasted for several years outside of Turkey. In 1987, the ban on his political activities was lifted. In the same year he and his wife founded the Democratic Left Party Rahsan Aral (DSP ), both dominated the party completely. With its policy of democratic socialism, he tried to pursue the modernization of Turkish society.

In 1997, he resigned as chairman of a DSP in the government of Mesut Yılmaz ( Motherland Party ANAP ) and the DYP and was only two years later, from 1999 to 2002 for the fourth and last time Prime Minister (after M. Yılmaz ). Its DSP reigned in changing coalitions with the ANAP, DYP and the far-right MHP. The statement signed by him in 2000 death sentence against PKK leader Ocalan was not enforced. Nevertheless, it came to inmate riots in 20 prisons.

While he was able in 1978 to prevent the entry of Turkey into the European Community, he won in his last years in politics, joining the EU in particular positive aspects from.

In November 2002, the DSP lost the election against the newly formed AKP under Erdogan, from 22% in 1999, fell to her share of the vote to 1%. Because of a massive economic crisis 2001/2002 lost hundreds of thousands of Turkish workers their jobs and congested this to Ecevit's economic policy. Became Prime Minister Abdullah Gul. Ecevit left end of 2002, the policy, as he left his office could no longer perform for health reasons. After a stroke on 19 May 2006 Ecevit was until June 29, 2006 at the coma and died on November 5, 2006 in Ankara. He is survived by his wife Rahsan that stood him for decades and politically to the side. The couple remained childless Ecevit.

Funeral

At the funeral on 11 November 2006, more than a hundred thousand people took leave of Ecevit. There were once almost a million mourners who thought in 81 cities Ecevit. The overall governance and leading representatives of all branches and the parties represented in Parliament assembled at his burial in the State Cemetery in Ankara. Members of the AKP and Prime Minister Erdoğan was booed at the funeral. The cemetery was previously reserved for presidents and senior companions in arms of the Republic 's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Miscellaneous

Ecevit was of followers affectionately called Karaoğlan ( Black Boy), and even dyed his advanced age his hair. His political reputation was considered blameless, for he was never involved in a Korruptionsäffare. He also worked as translator forth ( among other works of TS Eliot and Rabindranath Tagore ) and published his own poems. Ecevit was regarded as the most important theorist of Kemalism in its time.