Süleyman Sami Demirel (1 November 1924 – 17 June 2015) was a Turkish politician, engineer, and statesman who served as the president of Turkey from 1993 to 2000. He previously served as the prime minister of Turkey seven times between 1965 and 1993. He was the leader of the Justice Party (AP) from 1964 to 1980 and the leader of the True Path Party (DYP) from 1987 to 1993.
Having been identified as a potential future prime minister by Adnan Menderes, Demirel was elected leader of the Justice Party in 1964 and managed to bring down the government of İsmet İnönü in 1965 despite not being a Member of Parliament. He supported the government of Suat Hayri Ürgüplü until his party won a parliamentary majority in 1965. He became the first prime minister born in the Republic of Turkey. Claiming that his Justice Party was the successor of the banned Democrat Party, he was re-elected as premier in 1969 by winning a parliamentary majority for a second time. Despite his economic reforms which stabilised inflation, he resigned after his budget was blocked by parliament, but formed his third government shortly after. His premiership came to an end following the 1971 Turkish coup d'état.
Demirel was the leader of the opposition from 1971 to 1975 before forming a right-wing government known as the First Nationalist Front, which collapsed in 1977. He formed the Second Nationalist Front cabinet in 1977, which collapsed in 1978. Demirel's minority government in 1979 was unable to elect a president in 1980, leading to the 1980 Turkish coup d'état which banned Demirel from politics. Returning to politics in 1987, he assumed the leadership of the True Path Party. He won the 1991 general election and formed a coalition with the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), assuming his fifth and final term as prime minister. Following the sudden death of serving President Turgut Özal, Demirel contested the 1993 presidential election and subsequently became the ninth President of Turkey until 2000. With 10 years and 5 months, his tenure as premier is the third longest in Turkish history, after İsmet İnönü and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Family Süleyman Demirel was born on 1 November 1924, İslamköy, Atabey, a town in Isparta Province to Hacı Yahya Demirel (1894–1972) and Hacı Ümmühan Demirel (1902–1979).
He was a shepherd in his childhood, which set him apart from the traditional political elite of the country, usually from the military-bureaucratic or the landowning elite, something Demirel used for his public image: because of his rise from a humble background, the rural masses in particular admired him. These conservative masses further identified with him when he projected the image of a proud Muslim, reminding the public that his father did the Hajj, that in his home, the Qur'an was read on a daily basis when he was a child, or that the name of his village, "İslamköy", means "village of Islam".
Upon completing elementary school in his hometown, he attended middle and high schools in Isparta, Muğla, and Afyon. In 1948, he married Nazmiye Şener, his second cousin.
Engineering career After graduating from the school of civil engineering at the Istanbul Technical University in 1949, Süleyman Demirel worked in the State Department for electrical power planning. 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 director of the Department of Dams. In 1955, he served as director general of the State Hydraulic Works (DSİ). As such, Demirel supervised the construction of a various power plants, dams and irrigation facilities. Eisenhower Fellowships selected Süleyman Demirel in 1954 to represent Turkey.
After the coup d'état in 1960, 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 the Morrison Construction Company, 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.
Entry to politics His political career started with his election to the executive board of the Justice Party, founded by the former general Ragıp Gümüşpala as a replacement of the Democrat Party that was banned after the military coup of 27 May 1960. Journalist and MP Cihat Baban claims in The Gallery of Politics (Politika Galerisi), that President Cemal Gürsel told him:
Demirel's rural, central Anatolian accent and the fact that he came from a village from the countryside made him very appealing to rural voters.
On 22 March 1963, the imprisoned former president Celal Bayar was released on parole, causing protests in front of Justice Party headquarters. Demirel resigned from his position during the ordeal, and claimed that "There wouldn't be democracy in this country for another 50 years". He remained politically inactive until the death of Ragıp Gümüşpala in June 1964 when he re-entered politics as a candidate for chairman of the party. However, Demirel faced strong opposition. His biggest rival was Sadettin Bilgiç, nicknamed "koca reis" (Turkish: "big captain"). Bilgiç supporters accused Demirel of being a freemason; While this was true, Demirel averted the crisis with a lie. Instead of writing to his own lodge, he petitioned a separate freemason's lodge asking whether he was a member or not. As expected, the lodge chairman answered negatively. This turned the tide in Demirel's favor, and he received enough votes to become the chairman of the Justice Party, receiving 1,072 votes to Bilgiç's 552, and Tekin Arıburun's 39.
Demirel was elected chairman at the second grand party convention on 28 November 1964. He facilitated the formation of a caretaker 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 Justice Party won an unprecedented majority of the votes in the 1965 general election and formed a majority government. Demirel thus became the youngest-ever Prime Minister in Turkish history at the age of 40.
First premiership
Demirel was one of the first of a new generation born in the 1920s that were now entering politics known as the "Republican Generation", during which heroes of the Turkish War of Independence such as İsmet İnönü, Celâl Bayar and Ragıp Gümüşpala were gradually withdrawing from politics.
Shortly after coming to power he faced was the "Presidential crisis" when Cemal Gürsel, who assumed the presidency after the adoption of the 1961 Constitution, stated that his poor health prevented him from continuing his duty. Demirel nominated the Chief of the General Staff, Cevdet Sunay for the presidency in order to soften the army's attitude towards the Justice Party, who became president in 1966.
In the next elections on 10 October 1969, his party was the sole winner by a landslide once again. Demirel presided over laying the foundations of the Keban Dam, the Bosphorus Bridge and an oil pipeline between Batman and İskenderun. Economic reforms stabilized inflation, and Turkey became one of the fastest growing economies. However boycotts and strikes by university students in 1968 began political instability which especially concerned the Turkish military. Pressure was also mounting from the United States, as the Nixon Administration wished for Turkey to ban the cultivation of opium, which would have been politically costly for Demirel to implement. Demirel also had trouble brewing inside his own party, as he attempted to issue an amnesty to ex-Democrats, he was effectively vetoed by the armed forces. As a result, in 1970, several ex-DP deputies left the Justice Party to found the Democratic Party, while the Islamists also left to found the National Order Party under Necmettin Erbakan.
The chaotic seventies
1971 memorandum
A worsening economy, the 15–16 June events, one of the biggest workers' protests in the history of Turkey; disagreements between the government and military over the Cyprus dispute, escalations of tensions with Greece, and conflict between leftists and rightists served to define the last years of Demirel's first premiership as politically unstable. He blamed the liberal constitution for the crisis. He resigned as prime minister after his budget was blocked by parliament but formed his third government shortly after. A military coup attempt by National Democratic Revolutionaries on 9 March 1971 finally resulted in a direct military intervention on 12 March, and Demirel resigned for a military-supported government under Nihat Erim.
The constitutional amendments that Demirel wished for were implemented during technocratic military governance which relied on support from parliament. In the spring of 1973, with the presidential election on the agenda, to counter the army's influence over national politics, he reached an agreement with the new leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Bülent Ecevit, to support Fahri Korutürk as president instead of former chief of staff of Turkish Military Faruk Gürler. During the election process, tanks were positioned near Grand National Assembly of Turkey to indicate to MPs that the armed forces might intervene.
Nationalist Front governments With the Justice Party emerging second in the general election in 1973, a grand CHP-AP coalition was expected. However, Demirel announced that "We can only come together in war." CHP instead formed a coalition with Erbakan's new Islamist party, the National Salvation Party (MSP). Ecevit's government carried out the Invasion of Cyprus, but ideological conflicts in the government prompted Ecevit to resign on 18 September 1974 and hold early elections. However early elections never happened, and instead Sadi Irmak had to head a caretaker government that lasted for 194 days from 18 September until 31 March, when, under the leadership of Demirel, a right-wing coalition government, the "First Nationalist Front", was established consisting of the Justice Party, MSP, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the Republican Reliance Party. In order for the coalition to survive, Islamist MSP supporters and ultranationalist MHP members were recruited within state institutions, intensifying the renewed political violence of the 1970s; 42 people were killed in a 1977 May Day rally at Taksim Square. The country entered an economic depression caused by a rise in global petrol prices, deficit in foreign payments and rapid inflation. Süleyman Demirel's nephew, Yahya Kemal Demirel, was arrested for corruption after an investigation by the journalist Uğur Mumcu during this period.
Despite gaining support in the 1977 elections the Justice Party again lost to CHP, which received 41.4 percent of the vote. However, Ecevit was not able to form a government, so Demirel became prime minister again, forming the Second Nationalist Front with only MSP and MHP. This government fell in a no-confidence vote on 31 December 1977, in what was known as the Güneş Motel Incident, where 13 Justice Party MPs defected from their party to support a CHP government where they received cabinet positions. Demirel refused to establish a dialogue with the CHP-dominated government and conducted a vicious opposition to Ecevit by referring to him as "head of government" instead of "prime minister". Referring to Ecevit's government, Demirel said "In no country in the world, could such a government [Ecevit's] with 1200 deaths, 70% inflation, disrepute, cruelty, torture, unjust and merciless partisanship stand for even one day. A cadre that has exceeded its ambition has usurped the administration." On 21 February 1979, he announced to President Korutürk that they were against the extension of martial law.