Demirel, Süleyman

▪ president of Turkey

born October 6, 1924, İslâmköy, Turkey

      politician and civil engineer who served seven times as prime minister of Turkey and was president from 1993 to 2000.

      Born into a peasant family, Demirel graduated in 1948 from the Technical University of Istanbul as an engineer. He entered politics in 1961 and was elected to the National Assembly that same year as a member of the Justice Party (JP), becoming the party's leader in 1964. On October 27, 1965, after the general elections, he became the youngest prime minister in his country's history. As prime minister he improved Turkey's ties with its NATO allies and instituted development programs for his basic constituency, the Turkish peasantry.

      Demirel was reelected in 1969, but his moderate policies faced growing opposition from both the left and the right, and, upon his refusal to allow the military to assume a policy-making role in efforts to combat terrorism, Turkey's military commanders forced him to resign in March 1971. In March 1975 a coalition of the JP and smaller right-wing parties in a Nationalist Front once more restored Demirel to the prime ministry.

      Demirel pursued a policy of economic growth, in spite of civil violence and terrorism from extremist factions, inflation, and a trade deficit. But the electoral coalitions that now enabled him to maintain power were inherently weak, unstable, and governmentally ineffective. His fourth ministry fell in June 1977, but he achieved a fifth prime ministry from July to December 1977 and a sixth from November 1979 to September 1980. As the country continued to be torn apart by extremist violence, the military overthrew his government on September 12, 1980. Demirel was banned from participating in politics for a time, but he once more was returned to office as prime minister in November 1991, with the electoral defeat of the governing Motherland Party. He resigned that post in May 1993 after he was elected president of Turkey. In 2000 the National Assembly rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed the president to seek a second term, and Demirel was thus barred from running for reelection. He left office in 2000.

* * *