DEMIREL, Süleyman

Süleyman Demirel was born on November 1, 1924 into a modest peasant family in Islamkoy, remote village of the province of Isparta (Turkey).

In 1949, he was graduated in engineering at the Istanbul Technical University and joined the same year the Electrical Studies and Research Administration in Ankara. At the same time, he undertook postgraduate studies in the United States on irrigation, electrical technologies and dam construction (1949-1951).

From 1952 to 1954, the engineer Demirel was in charge of building various hydro-electric schemes (e.g. the dam on the Seyhan river, in the south of the country). In 1954, he was appointed Head of Turkey's Dams Department (1954-1955). As an Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship scholar, he simultaneously worked as a researcher for several private companies and U.S. government agencies in the United States, including the Rural Electrification Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Back home, he served as Director General of the State Hydraulic Administration from 1955 to 1960. He also became teacher of Hydraulic Engineering at Ankara's Middle East Technical University (1960-1964).

Süleyman Demirel started his political career in the early 60's as a member of the right-wing Justice Party of which he was elected chairman at the party's 2nd grand convention on November 28, 1964. He occupied this position until 1980.

Between February and October 1965, he was Deputy Prime Minister. At the general elections of October 10, 1965, his party won 53% of the votes and consecutively formed a majority government of which Demirel became Prime Minister (1965-1969), being then, at the age of 39, the youngest-ever Prime Minister of Turkey.

He has occupied this position several times since then: 1969-1971 (he resigned upon the Military Memorandum of March 12, 1971); 1975-June 1977; July-Dec. 1977; 1979-1980; 1991-1993.

Following the military coup of September 12, 1980, the generals kicked him out of office and decided to ban him from politics for a period of ten years. However, Demirel created in 1983 the True Path Party (DYP) and, in 1986, was one of the initiators of a national campaign which led one year later to a referendum (September 6, 1987) that allowed the lift of the ban on political parties. Süleyman Demirel was then elected chairman of the True Path Party (DYP) at the party's extraordinary convention of September 24, 1987 and re-entered parliament after the general elections of November 29, 1987.

Following the General Elections of October 20, 1991, Demirel became Prime Minister for the seventh time, heading a coalition government with the Social Democrat People's Party (SHP).

After the death of President Türgüt Özal, he was appointed President of the Republic of Turkey on May 16, 1993.

Although a strong nationalist like him, Demirel is described as a fierce political opponent of Bülent Ecevit, his current Prime Minister. Close to the West, Demirel is a supporter of Turkey's drive to join the European Union and of the country's participation in NATO. Recently, he prevented his Prime Minister from renewing ambassadorial relations with Iraq and persuaded him to let Turkey participate in NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia. He also has a clear view of Turkey's role as a regional power. When the Soviet Union broke out, he declared that Turkey should be at the helm of "a Turkic-speaking world stretching from the Great Wall of China to the Adriatic". Concerning the Kurdish and Cypriot questions, Demirel is equally unyielding.

As an engineer specialized in hydraulics, Süleyman Demirel has always heavily invested in the grandest infrastructural projects for Turkey, specially the ambitious "GAP" in south-eastern Anatolia, earning him praise as "the king of dams".

Although a devout Muslim, Süleyman Demirel is secular in politics. He has always tried to push Turkey towards economic modernity without cutting away its traditional roots.

The project of constitutional reform presented by Mr. Ecevit's government to allow the election of Mr. Demirel for a second presidential mandate was rejected by the Turkish Parliament on April 5, 2000. Although many considered Mr. Ismaïl CEM to be the most probable candidate to succeed Mr. Demirel, the Turkish Parliament, in a third round of voting on May 5th, elected Mr. Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Head of the Constitutional Court, to be the new president for a single seven-year term and succeed him on May 16th.

(May 2000)