Ecevit Quits Politics
At a party congress in Ankara, he made a farewell speech to his party members and said, " I can now have much spare time. For the last fifty years, I have always dreamt of writing poems and make paintings on top of a mountain."
"I want each of you to tour villages and listen to problems of our villagers and try to do your best to help them as you know that it was my last biggest project," he said.
Criticizing the policies of the current government, Ecevit wished the best for his successor Zeki Sezer, 47, who was a minister in charge of religious affairs and relations with Parliament in the previous government.
Party delegates frequently interrupted his speech with applause and cheers. Some cried as others sang along to pop star Levent Yuksel's song, which includes the lyric lines: Look after yourself/ Be happy in the years to come.
Ecevit will remain a member of the party but won't be involved in leading it.
Ends 50-year political career
Ecevit was born to a middle-class family in Istanbul in 1925. He began his political career in 1957 as an elected M.P. representing the Republican People's Party (CHP), a centre-left party.
In 1961, he was appointed Minister of Labour in the government led by Ismet Inonu, then CHP's chairman. Ecevit's career within the CHP progressed rapidly: elected Party Secretary General in 1966, he led the party further left under the banner of "democratic socialism" arguing that it was the best way to defend Turkey against the threat of communism.
In March 1971, Bulent Ecevit resigned from office in response to his party's support of the new government formed by Nihat Erim after Suleyman Demirel had been pressured by the military coup to resign; Ecevit was protesting against the persistent intervention of the military in domestic politics.
A year later, Ecevit replaced Inonu as Chairman of the CHP party, which he led to victory in the 1973 General Elections. In 1974, he formed with the MSP, Necmettin Erbakan's islamist leaning party, a short-lived coalition government which tried to cut down the excesses of the police state created by the military, lifted the ban on opium production introduced in 1974 under U.S. pressure and sent troops to Cyprus in July 1974 to protect the local Turkish minority after the Greek coup in Athens and took control of northern Cyprus.
However, the coalition was not viable, and as a result, Ecevit resigned in November of the same year and replaced by Demirel.
Cheered by the masses, Ecevit formed another government in January 1978, promising to put an end to the deepening economic crisis and the rising political violence.
His government adopted unsuccessfully an economic stabilization program partly underwritten by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Inflation and unemployment continued to soar dramatically while political and ethnic violence worsened with, on one hand deadly attacks on the Alevi minority by the fascists groups and, on the other hand, the birth of Kurdish separatism by PKK. Ecevit resigned in October 1979 and once again replaced by Demirel.
Following the 1981 army coup, most parties were banned, among which the CHP. Bulent Ecevit eventually re-emerged in 1987 as head of the DSP that he founded by his wife Rahsan Ecevit in 1985.
At first a minor party, the DSP became the leading political force of the left. It is generally opposed to free-market reforms, but approves NATO membership and further integration with Europe. Bülent Ecevit is well known for his nationalistic fervors.
The DSP has been part of a governmental coalition with ANAP from July 1997 until November 1998, Bulent Ecevit serving as deputy Prime Minister. He then was called to form a minority government (the sixth since the 1995 general elections). Its government later obtained a parliamentary majority thanks to the support of Motherland Party (ANAP) and True Path Party (DYP).
Bulent Ecevit, who was already remembered as the Turkish Prime Minister who intervened Cyprus, suddenly became very popular when he announced on 16 February 1999 the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
His party, DSP, jumped from 14,6 to 22 percent of the votes and became the first on the Turkish political scene after the general elections of April 1999, followed by the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) of Devlet Bahçeli, the Virtue Party (Fazilet, islamist) and ANAP of Mesut Yilmaz.
Following these elections, Ecevit was the Prime Minister and led a coalition government with the MHP and the ANAP which had a clear majority (351 seats out of a total of 550) in parliament to pass economic reforms recommended by the IMF.
This coalition government faced a vote of confidence in parliament on June 6 and won it. In this government, DSP got the Foreign Ministry portfolio, while MHP got the Defense and ANAP the Interior.
Ecevit was ousted in the 2002 general elections, which brought PM Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AK Party) into power in the aftermath of a severe financial crisis, which slashed national output by almost 10 percent and left millions jobless.
During his career, Ecevit helped workers gain the right to strike and bargain collectively and backed land reform for peasants.
Although he is a very erudite person who speaks perfectly English and reads Sanskrit (he translated T.S. Eliott and Rabindranath Tagore in Turkish), he never got any university degree and consequently could not become President of Turkey. (MS-ULG) (YE)