Ecevit, Bülent (1925–2006)

Bülent Ecevit was a Turkish journalist, a man of ideas, and a political leader and was also known as a poet. Ecevit had a 45-year political career during which he served as minister of labor (1961 to 1964), deputy prime minister (1997 to 1999), and prime minister (four times between 1973 and 2002). He was jailed three times and banned from politics for 10 years. He is best known for his decision as prime minister to send Turkish troops into Cyprus, for his idea of the “democratic left,” for his stand against “anti-democratic political designs,” and for his financial honesty.

An editor for Ulus, the official journal of the Republican People's Party, Ecevit was elected deputy in 1957. As minister of labor (1961 to 1964), he introduced labor rights so that he came to be identified with leftist-populist politics. Promising a new centerleft identity for the Republican People's Party in 1972, Ecevit succeeded Ismet Inönü, the second president of the Republic and the leader of the party after Kemal Atatürk, as party chairman. Ecevit, with his wife and campaign strategist, Rahşan Ecevit, toured the party's branches to explain his new center-left program.

Upon his command as prime minister to mobilize Turkish troops into Cyprus to halt violence against the Turkish minority and to reestablish peace on the island in July 1974, Ecevit came to be publicly known as “Conqueror of Cyprus,” a national hero. His political discourse comprised nationalistic/patriotic, proworking class, and populist elements. It identified the just order with an order of the people. Ecevit, thus, built an image as a “man of the people.” He always wore a cap, the headwear of peasants, and a blue shirt, the symbol of the working class. The color of his blue shirt was later named after him and became known as “Ecevit's blue.” He addressed the public on a platform launched on the roof of a bus, a strategy to make him visible among others present; in a sense, to turn his physical disadvantage as a small-built man into an advantage. White doves were used as symbols of peace. Ecevit was nicknamed Karaoğlan, or “Dark Boy,” a name derived from a Turkish comic hero that also referred to his black hair and mustache. He gradually became a symbol of hope for people, and his fans wrote his name over the mountains of the country. The outcome was his party's victory with 41% of the votes in the 1977 elections.

Seven years after the 1980 coup, he became the chairman of the Democratic Left Party. In the 1999 elections, the Democratic Left won 22.1% of general votes. The party owed its success to Ecevit's corruptionfree image, his modest way of life, and his ability to communicate clear and consistent messages. However, with the loss of public support in 2002, Ecevit left politics. He was the honorary chairman of the party when he died on November 4, 2006. His funeral attracted hundreds of thousands of people from numerous provinces.