Bülent Ecevit, Turkish journalist, scholar, and politician, 16th Prime Minister of Turkey (d. 2006)
Mustafa Bülent Ecevit (Turkish: [mustaˈfa byˈlænt edʒeˈvit]; 28 May 1925 – 5 November 2006) 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 served as prime minister in 1974, 1977, 1978–79, and 1999–2002. Ecevit was chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP) between 1972 and 1980, and in 1987 he became chairman of the Democratic Left Party (DSP). He is credited with introducing social democratic politics to Turkey by synthesizing Kemalism with social democracy, thus making social democracy a core tenet in modern Kemalist ideology.
Ecevit began his political career when he was elected an MP from CHP in the 1957 election, and came to prominence as Minister of Labour in İsmet İnönü's cabinets, representing the rising left-wing faction of the party. Ecevit eventually became leader of the CHP in 1972; his leadership rejuvenated the party by reaching out to working class voters and cementing the party as "Left of Center". Ecevit became Prime Minister in 1974, during which he retracted the ban on cultivation of opium and invaded Cyprus. He formed two more governments in 1977 and 1978-79 which were marked by increasing polarization, deadlock, and political violence that ended with the 1980 coup.
After the 1980 coup, Ecevit, along with the notables of all other parties, was banned from politics for 10 years. During the ban, the Democratic Left Party (DSP) was established under the chairmanship of his wife, Rahşan Ecevit. When the political ban was lifted with a referendum held in 1987, he became the head of the DSP. While heading a caretaker government for the 1999 general election, PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured in Kenya, catapulting DSP into first place in the election. The DSP-MHP-ANAP coalition (1999–2002) introduced important political and economic reforms, as well as beginning Turkey's accession into the European Union. MHP's withdrawal from the coalition led to the government's collapse, and in the subsequent 2002 snap election, DSP was ejected from parliament for being unable to clear the electoral threshold. Ecevit resigned the chairmanship of the party in 2004. He died on Sunday, November 5, 2006, as a result of circulatory and respiratory failure.