Bülent Ecevit

Mustafa Bülent Ecevit (28 May 1925 – 5 November 2006) was a Turkish statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002, specifically in 1974, 1977, 1978–79, and 1999–2002. Ecevit was Chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP) from 1972 to 1980, and became Chairman of the Democratic Left Party (DSP) in 1987.

Ecevit was elected a CHP MP from Ankara in the 1957 general election and came to prominence as Minister of Labour in İsmet İnönü's cabinets, representing the rising left-wing faction of the party. In 1972, Ecevit became leader of the CHP. His leadership reached out to working-class voters and cemented the party as "Left of Centre".

Ecevit first 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 1978–1979 which were marked by increasing polarisation, deadlock, and political violence that ended with the 1980 coup.

Following the coup, Ecevit was banned from politics for ten years. During this decade, the Democratic Left Party (DSP) was established under the leadership of his wife, Rahşan. When the ban was lifted 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, allowing DSP to emerge victorious. The DSP-MHP-ANAP coalition (1999–2002) introduced important political and economic reforms, as well as beginning Turkish accession into the European Union. The MHP's withdrawal from the coalition led to the government's collapse, and at the subsequent 2002 snap election, the DSP was ejected from Parliament after being unable to clear the electoral threshold. Ecevit resigned as Chairman of the party in 2004. He died on 5 November 2006 of circulatory and respiratory failure.

Ecevit is known for being Turkey's only left-wing Prime Minister. His chairmanship resulted in the highest shares of votes CHP or any other left-wing party have ever gained in Turkish history. He is credited for introducing social democratic politics to Turkey by a combination of Kemalism with social democracy, thus making social democracy a core tenet in modern Kemalist ideology. Ecevit is the last non-AKP Prime Minister of Turkey.