Süleyman Demirel

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Sami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel
9th President of the Republic of Turkey
In office 16 May 1993 – 16 May 2000
Prime Minister	Tansu Çiller Necmettin Erbakan Mesut Yılmaz Bülent Ecevit
Preceded by	Turgut Özal
Succeeded by	Ahmet Necdet Sezer
Prime Minister of Turkey
In office 20 November 1991 – 16 May 1993
President	Turgut Özal
Preceded by	Mesut Yılmaz
Succeeded by	Erdal Inönü
In office 12 November 1979 – 12 September 1980
President	Fahri Korutürk Kenan Evren
Preceded by	Bülent Ecevit
Succeeded by	Bülent Ulusu
In office 21 July 1977 – 5 January 1978
President	Fahri Korutürk
Preceded by	Bülent Ecevit
Succeeded by	Bülent Ecevit
In office 31 March 1975 – 21 June 1977
President	Fahri Korutürk
Preceded by	Sadi Irmak
Succeeded by	Bülent Ecevit
In office 27 October 1965 – 16 March 1971
President	Cemal Gürsel Cevdet Sunay
Preceded by	Suat Hayri Ürgüplü
Succeeded by	Nihat Erim
Born	November 1, 1924 (1924-11-01) (age 85) Isparta
Nationality	Turkish
Political party	Justice Party, True Path Party (now Democratic Party)
Spouse(s)	Nazmiye Demirel
Alma mater	Istanbul Technical University
Religion	Muslim

Sami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel, better known as Süleyman Demirel (born 1 November 1924), is a Turkish politician who served as prime minister seven times and was the 9th President of Turkey. When he won the 1965 general elections in Turkey, he became the second democratically elected leader in Turkish history, after Adnan Menderes who had won elections three times in the 50s, but was hanged after a military coup d'état in 1960.

[edit] Life

Demirel was born in İslamköy, a village in Isparta. His roots go back to an Albanian immigrant family who emigrated from the Balkans to Turkey.^[1] Upon completion of his elementary school education in his hometown, he attended middle school and high school in Isparta and Afyon respectively. He graduated from the school of civil engineering at the Istanbul Technical University in 1949. Demirel worked in the state department for electrical power planning in 1949. He undertook postgraduate studies on irrigation, electrical technologies and dam construction in the United States first in 1949-1950, then in 1954-1955. During the construction of the Seyhan Dam, Demirel worked as a project engineer and in 1954 was appointed Head of Department of Dams. As of 1955, he served as director general of the State Hydraulic Works (DSİ). In this capacity, Demirel was to supervise the construction of a multitude of dams, power plants, and irrigation facilities.^[2] After the 1960 coup d'état, he was drafted to the Turkish Army for compulsory military service. Upon completion of his military service, he worked as a freelance engineer and representative of Morrison Construction, a US company. During this period, he also worked as a part-time lecturer of hydraulic engineering at ODTÜ Middle East Technical University in Ankara.

He is married to Nazmiye Demirel. The couple have no children.

[edit] Political career

His political career started with his election to the executive board of Adalet Partisi (AP; the Justice Party) founded by the former General Ragip Gumuspala as directed by the Head of State Cemal Gürsel as the replacement of the Demokrat Parti (the Democrat Party) that was closed after the military coup of 27 May 1960. Journalist and MP Cihat Baban claims in The Gallery of Politics (Politika Galerisi), that Cemal Gürsel told him :

Demirel was elected Chairman at the second grand party convention on 28 November 1964. He facilitated the formation of a coalition government that ruled between February and October 1965 under the premiership of Suat Hayri Ürgüplü, in which he served as Deputy Prime Minister. Under his leadership, AP won an unprecedented majority of the votes in the elections of 10 October 1965 and formed a majority government.

Cemal Gürsel assigning the mandate to form government to Demirel.

As deputy from Isparta, Demirel became Turkey’s 12th Prime Minister and ruled the country for four years. In the next elections on 10 October 1969, his party was the sole winner by a landslide once again. He resigned after the military memorandum of 12 March 1971.^[3] He was not able to win the elections held in 1973 and 1977; however between 1971 and 1980 he served as prime minister for three more times, albeit with coalition partners, during 1975-1977, 1977-1978 and 1979-1980, respectively.

[edit] After the 1980 coup

Following the coup d'état of 12 September 1980, headed by Kenan Evren, he was banned from involvement in active politics for ten years. In 1986 however, Demirel launched a national campaign for the lifting of the bans and initiated a national referendum on the issue.

The 6 September 1987 referendum allowed him to return to active politics. Only 18 days later, Demirel was elected chairman at the extraordinary convention of the True Path Party (DYP) that replaced the Adalet Partisi. He was reelected deputy of Isparta at the elections of 29 November 1987.

Following the elections of 20 October 1991, Demirel became prime minister once again in a coalition government with the Social Democratic People's Party.

After the sudden death of president Turgut Özal, he became the 9th president on May 16, 1993, elected by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

On 10 March 1995, he became aware of a coup attempt against Azerbaijan President Heydar Aliyev, prepared by his predecessor Ebulfeyz Elçibey with the assistance of the and the Turkish intelligence and security agencies, and warned Aliyev.^[4]

Demirel was able to keep his position as President when he collaborated with the military during the 1997 "post-modern coup" in Turkey.^[3] He served as President until 16 May 2000, for the constitutional term of seven years.

During his service for the development and industrialization of the country as a director general at the age of 30 and a political party chairman and the youngest Turkish prime minister at the age of 40, his tenure was shorter than only İsmet İnönü’s.

Following retirement from his political career, Demirel has frequently been a panelist and speaker at several universities in Turkey.

The Suleyman Demirel Airport and Suleyman Demirel University, both of which are in Isparta are named after him. So are the Süleyman Demirel Stadium in Antalya and Süleyman Demirel Medical Centre of Ataturk University in Erzurum. There are also two important main streets named after him one in Istanbul and the other in Muğla.

Demirel is nicknamed Baba (The Father) or Çoban Sülü (The Shepherd Suleyman) and humorously Spartacus, after his home town. His hat is almost as famous as him.

[edit] References

v • d • e Presidents of the Republic of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk · İsmet İnönü · Celal Bayar · Cemal Gürsel · Cevdet Sunay · Fahri Korutürk · Kenan Evren · Turgut Özal · Süleyman Demirel · Ahmet Necdet Sezer · Abdullah Gül