Süleyman Demirel

Sami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel, better known as Süleyman Demirel (Turkish pronunciation: [sylejˈman demiˈɾel]; born 1 November 1924), is a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister seven times and was the ninth President of Turkey.

Life

Demirel was born in İslamköy, a town in Isparta Province.^[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 the 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 a representative of Morrison Construction, a U.S. company. During this period, he also worked as a part-time lecturer of hydraulic engineering at the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) in Ankara.

Political career

His political career started with his election to the executive board of the Justice Party founded by the former General Ragıp Gümüşpala, as directed by the Head of State Cemal Gürsel as the replacement of 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, the AP won an unprecedented majority of the votes in the elections of 10 October 1965 and formed a majority government. Demirel thus became the youngest-ever Prime Minister in Turkish history, and the second democratically-elected Prime Minister after Adnan Menderes who had won elections three times in the 1950s, but was executed after a military coup d'état in 1960.

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 that were 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.

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 re-elected 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 ninth President on 16 May 1993, elected by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

On 10 March 1995, he became aware of a coup attempt against President Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan (prepared by his predecessor Ebulfeyz Elçibey) with the assistance of 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 overall tenure was shorter than only İsmet İnönü's.

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

Personal life

Süleyman Demirel is married to Nazmiye Demirel, the couple have no children.

Legacy

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

Awards

Demirel was awarded with Istiglal Order for his contributions to development of Azerbaijan–Turkey relations and constructive position on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, creation of unity among Turkic states by President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev on 12 June 1999.^[5] He is also a Collar of the Estonian Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, a recipient of the Polish Order of the White Eagle (1993) and a Knight Grand Cross of the Croatian Grand Order of King Tomislav.

In popular culture

Demirel is nicknamed Baba (The Father) or Çoban Sülü (The Shepherd Sülü (Süleyman)) and humorously Spartacus, after his native city Isparta. His fedora hat is almost as famous as he is. Also, whenever there is political distress, Turkish media or his followers call on him with the words "Kurtar bizi baba". ( Father, save us.) He is well known for his phrases, such as "Dün dündür, bugün bugündür" ( Yesterday is yesterday, today is today). He usually says this phrase when he changes his stand on a subject. "Benzin vardı da biz mi içtik?" ( Did we drink the gasoline, as if there was any?) He explains that he is not responsible for the gas shortages in '70s.

References