Ecevit, Bülent

(born May 28, 1925, Constantinople, Tur.—died Nov. 5, 2006, Ankara) Turkish poet, journalist, and politician. A writer for the newspaper of the Republican People's Party (RPP), he was elected as a RPP member to the Turkish parliament in 1957. As minister of labour (1961–65), he made the strike a legal weapon for labour for the first time in Turkish history. He became head of the RPP in 1972 and served as prime minister of Turkey, first in the 1970s and later from 1999 to 2002. As head of government, he declared an amnesty for all political prisoners and in 1974 authorized Turkey's military intervention in Cyprus after the Greek-led coup on that island.

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