So far, 12 presidents have held the presidency of the Turkish Republic, since its establishment in 1923, after the end of the Ottoman Empire and the transformation of the country into a presidential republic.
Over the course of 99 years, many changes took place in the Turkish presidency, especially the powers granted to the president, but the most prominent was that most of the presidents belonged to parties, with the exception of a few of them, who came through military coups.
In the following report, we review details of all the presidents of Turkey, their years of service in office, and the backgrounds from which they came, in addition to many details and statistics for this important position.
Who are the presidents of Türkiye?
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
The first president of the Turkish Republic, he was born in the city of Thessaloniki, which was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire (currently located in Greece) in 1881. He was a commander of the army, in the post-Ottoman state, and he was a leader in the war of independence, after the Allies occupied large parts of Turkey, after Founding, he was elected by the Grand National Assembly as president, on October 29, 1923, he was elected 4 consecutive times, and he founded the Republican People’s Party, and it was the only party in the country, in light of the constitution’s prohibition of partisan pluralism in the country, and he continued in office until his death in November 10, 1938, and he is the longest-serving Turkish president.
Ismet Inonu
Born in the city of Izmir, western Turkey, in 1884, he was officially elected president of the country, after the death of Ataturk, on November 11, 1938. He was also appointed head of the Republican People’s Party. After the 1950 elections, he came down from power, after the Democratic Party won the elections. He became the leader of the opposition until 1960, to return to prime minister a year later, through a military coup, and he died on December 25, 1973.
Celal Bayar
Born in the city of Bursa, northwestern Turkey in 1883, he was elected president of Turkey by the Turkish Grand National Assembly, on May 22, 1950, to be the third president, and with the advent of partisan pluralism, he established with Adnan Menderes and Fuad Kopulu the Democratic Party and continued in office until his overthrow. In a military coup on May 27, 1960, he was sentenced to death, then the sentence was commuted to life, and he was released due to his health conditions after 4 years.
Jamal Gursal
Born in the city of Erzurum, eastern Turkey, in 1895, he rose to power by a decision of the National Unity Committee, which was formed by the first military coup in the country. In his position, he assumed the powers of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defense, formed a new government, and then was elected fourth president by the National Assembly. , on May 27, 1960, and continued in his position until March 28, 1966, and was removed from office by a decision of Parliament, due to his health conditions, due to the inability to perform his constitutional duties.
Cevdet Sunai
Born in the city of Erzurum in eastern Turkey in 1899, the Turkish General Assembly elected him as president on March 28, 1966. He is the fifth president of the country. He remained in office for 7 years, and later became a member of the Senate, until the military coup in 1980.
Fahri Korotork
Born in Istanbul in 1903 and was his country’s ambassador to Moscow and Madrid after his retirement from the Turkish navy, he was elected President of the Republic by the Grand National Assembly on April 6, 1973, and remained in office until April 6, 1980, then moved to the Turkish Senate. Until the military coup took place on September 12, 1980.
Kenan Evren
He was born in Manisa, western Turkey, in 1917. He was Chief of the General Staff, and led a military coup against power that was described as the most violent in the history of modern Turkey. On September 12, 1980, he assumed the position of the seventh president of Turkey on November 9, 1982, by changing the constitution that He was put to a referendum on November 7, 1982, and he remained in office until November 9, 1989, when his term ended.
Turgut Ozal
Born in Malatya, in the Anatolian regions of eastern Turkey, a politician who assumed many positions and founded the Motherland Party in 1983. He held the position of prime minister, before he reached the presidency on November 9, 1989. He was subjected to an assassination attempt, and he survived it. He died while in office. of a heart attack, on April 17, 1993.
Suleiman Demirel
Born in the city of Isparta, southwestern Turkey, a politician who reached prime ministership several times through coalition governments. He was dismissed after the military coup on September 12, 1980, and prevented from practicing politics for 7 years. He returned to political life after the ban was lifted following a popular referendum on the 6th. September 1987. He was elected President of Turkey on May 16, 1993 and remained in office until the end of his term on May 16, 2000.
Necdet Sezer
He was born in the city of Afyon, western Turkey, in 1941. He was a member of the Constitutional Court, then its president in 1998, then the National Assembly elected him president of Turkey on May 5, 2000, and he remained in office until August 28, 2007.
Abdullah Gul
Born in the city of Kayseri in the heart of Anatolia, central Turkey, a politician with a doctorate degree, was one of the co-founders of the Justice and Development Party with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held the position of Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, until his election by the National Assembly on August 28, 2007 He remained in office until the end of his term on August 28, 2014.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
He was born in the city of Istanbul in northwestern Turkey, and hails from the city of Rize on the Black Sea in the north of the country. He is the twelfth president of the country, and has been in office for two terms. He is a politician and party activist since his youth. He was elected mayor of the Greater Istanbul Municipality in 1994, and brought about fundamental changes in the reality of the city. After suffering from poor services, he was imprisoned for 4 months, because of a poem he recited among his supporters, and he was prevented from practicing politics, and he used a loophole to run in a state other than Istanbul, and entered the House of Representatives, in 2003, then became prime minister in the same year, after submitting His companion, Abdullah Gul, resigned from the position, and on August 10, 2014, he was elected president of Turkey for the first time.
On June 24, 2018, he was elected for the second time as President of Turkey, after a constitutional amendment, which was voted upon by the people, to transform into a presidential system, which allows for an increase in the term of the presidency to 5 years, and for two presidential terms only.
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.4”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
