Bülent Ecevit

Mustafa Bülent Ecevit (28 May 1925 – 5 November 2006) was a Turkish politician, statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist, who served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002. He served as prime minister in 1974, 1977, 1978–79, and 1999–2002. Ecevit was the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) between 1972 and 1980, and in 1989 he became the leader of the Democratic Left Party (DSP). He is credited with introducing social democratic politics to Turkey by synthesizing Kemalism with social democracy, thus making social democracy a core tenet in modern Kemalist ideology.

Bülent Ecevit in 2000

Quotes

• Happy Greece has returned to democracy. Only wish is that the new government should realise the value of close cooperation between Turkey and Greece.
  • "Prime Minister Ecevit Interviewed" in Associated Press (14 November 1974)

• After the bipolar world ended and the Soviet Union dissipated, many political circles, or political observers, students in North European countries, thought that Turkey's security value for the Western countries had been considerably diminished. But as a world power, the United States saw the facts earlier than most European countries, and realized that, on the contrary, after the ending of the bipolar world, the geopolitical importance of Turkey would have been augmented very much because, with the ending of the Soviet Union, the merger of Europe and Asia had gained pace and Turkey played a key role, a pivotal role in this merger of the two big continents.
  • "An Address by the Turkish Prime Minister (full transcript)" in The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1999)

• Turkey is, I believe, a model for Islamic countries for the sake of her democracy and modernization. Of course, some circles try to subvert this regime, but it has been solidly entrenched, and I think that its influence is becoming wider in the world.
  • "An Address by the Turkish Prime Minister (full transcript)" in The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1999)

• There are, today, a greater number of Islamic countries progressing towards democracy or practicing a degree of, some degrees of democracy than a decade or two earlier. I believe that Turkey's example has played an important role in this respect, because the Turkish experiment has proven that Islam can be compatible with modernity, with secularism, and with democracy.
  • "An Address by the Turkish Prime Minister (full transcript)" in The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1999)

However, democracy has survived and will survive in Turkey because the Turkish society is already well beyond the point of return and because the people would not put up with any alternative regime.

• However, the refusal of the European Union to grant membership to Turkey has played an educative role. It's made us realize that the world does not consist of Western Europe alone, that a country can become strong politically and economically by concentrating, by diversifying its international relations, all the world over, and we have been doing that with increasing success.
  • "An Address by the Turkish Prime Minister (full transcript)" in The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1999)

• It is no easy matter to make democracy live and to live by democracy for a country grappling with the tremendous difficulties and handicaps of being at the stage of development. The temptation may often be aroused, in the face of such difficulties, to look for deceptive short cuts that unwittingly may cause the society to drift away from the course of democracy – a course that requires patience, perseverance and tolerance.
  • "Speech Made to the European Parliamentary Assembly" (10 May 1979)

• Turkey has been one of the most rapidly changing societies of this age. Problems and conflicts arising out of change and transition have therefore been rather acute in Turkey. Change in Turkey did not start at the infrastructural level alone. Infrastructural and superstructural change have been taking place simultaneously. In some cases superstructural change has even preceded infrastructural change. The shocks and tremors of such a process of comprehensive and accelerated change were to some extent alleviated by the democratic regime which gave vent to the frustration caused by difficulties of adaptation, while at the same time increasing the difficulties of preserving democracy.
  • "Speech Made to the European Parliamentary Assembly" (10 May 1979)

• The unity of the Turkish nation is based on the fact that ethnic differentiation is alien to the traditional attitudes and social relations of the people of Turkey. Throughout history, ethnic or religious conflicts emerged in Turkey only when there were provocations from outside.
  • "Speech Made to the European Parliamentary Assembly" (10 May 1979)

• In a democratic country at our stage of development, the social feasibility of stabilisation measures is at least as important as their economic feasibility. In such a country a static stability does not work or, even when it seems to work, it backfires at one stage. It has to be a dynamic stability, ensuring a certain momentum in growth and development.
  • "Speech Made to the European Parliamentary Assembly" (10 May 1979)

Turkey, through NATO has contributed to the security of Europe and the West as a whole throughout the decades of Cold War. It carried the heavy economic burden of this responsible role with a great sense of duty.

• The Bosphorus bridges do not only straddle the two sides of Istanbul but they also unite the continents of Europe and Asia. And this, not only in geographic terms, but in the political and cultural senses of the word as well.
  • "Statement of Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit in Helsinki on Turkey´s Candidacy to the EU" (11 December 1999)

• The Turks have been Europeans for 600 years. But the Turks are not only Europeans. They are also Asian, Caucasian and Middle Eastern at once.
  • "Statement of Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit in Helsinki on Turkey´s Candidacy to the EU" (11 December 1999)

• Turkey, is the leader country in democracy and secularism among the countries having a majority of Muslim population.
  • "Statement of Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit in Helsinki on Turkey´s Candidacy to the EU" (11 December 1999)

• Yet, whatever the negative effects of such external factors may be, surmounting our deficiencies is primarily our own task and responsibility.
  • "Statement of Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit in Helsinki on Turkey´s Candidacy to the EU" (11 December 1999)

• Some members of the European Union may think that it will take many years for Turkey to become a full-member. But, I am convinced that given the dynamism of the Turkish people and their attachment to democracy, we will achieve this objective in a far shorter period.
  • "Statement of Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit in Helsinki on Turkey´s Candidacy to the EU" (11 December 1999)

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Bülent Ecevit on Wikipedia
• Media related to Bülent Ecevit on Wikimedia Commons