Celal Bayar

Mahmut Celâlettin "Celâl" Bayar (16 May 1883 – 22 August 1986) was a Turkish economist and politician who was the third president of Turkey from 1950 to 1960; previously he was the prime minister of Turkey from 1937 to 1939.

Bayar began his career in the Committee of Union and Progress, establishing its Izmir and Bursa branches.

Following the declaration of the Republic, he founded much of Turkey's early financial institutions, including the country's first bank, İş Bankası.

Mahmut Celâlettin (Bayar after 1934) was born on 16 May 1883 at Umurbey, a village of Gemlik, Bursa, the third son of Abdullah Fehmi Efendi, religious leader and teacher who migrated from Lom, Ottoman Bulgaria as a muhacir, after the Bulgarians ethnically cleansed the Muslim population there during the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish war.

His older brothers were Behzat and Asım.

Bayar worked as a clerk after school, first in a court in Gemlik and then in Ziraat Bank.

In 1906, he was employed in the Deutsche Orientbank in Bursa.

In 1907, Bayar joined an unofficial branch of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) in Bursa.

After the Second Constitutional Era was proclaimed following the Young Turk Revolution, he served as the secretary-general of a newly founded local branch of the organization, with instructions to organize Unionist infrastructure in Anatolia.

Bayar formed a Unionist militia in Bursa with the intention to join up with Mahmud Shevket Pasha's Action Army during the 31 March Incident.

He got as far as Mudanya but by then the revolt was crushed.

He then founded the İzmir branch of Union and Progress in 1911.

Bayar established an organization and CUP mouthpiece known as Halkın Doğru (True to the People), where he wrote pro-CUP articles under the pseudonym Turgut Alp.

He was a participant of the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état, and witnessed the murder of the Minister of War Nazım Pasha.

Well connected with financial circles, Bayar played an important role in Unionist Millî İktisat (National Economy) policies.

He was a member of the Special Organization and worked alongside Eşref Sencer Kuşçubaşı to help organize the 1914 Greek deportations in order to reduce the Ottoman Greek population on the Aegean coast.

He initiated the opening of İzmir Girls' High School, the Şimendifer Vocational School in Basmahane, and a library in İzmir.

Bayar also played an important role in the creation of the İzmir based sports club Altay S.K.

Following the Armistice of Mudros, which ended World War I for the Ottomans, he was tried and acquitted as a war criminal at the İzmir Martial Law Court.

However when the allied powers continued advancing into Ottoman territory despite the armistice, various nationalist organizations known as Defence of National Rights Associations started to be founded.

Bayar created the Association for the Cancellation of İzmir's Annexation (İzmir Redd-i İlhak Cemiyeti) and the Association for the Defence of Ottoman İzmir (İzmir Müdâfaa-i Hukuku Osmaniye Cemiyeti).

Bayar fled into the mountains after hearing rumors of an impending allied occupation of İzmir and finding out his name was on an arrest list from the Freedom and Accord government in Constantinople.

Once İzmir was occupied, he cooperated with the national resistance fighters in the Söke region.

On the side of the resistance, he participated in the Battle of Aydın against the Greeks.

With the decision of the Balıkesir Congress, he was appointed to the command of the Akhisar front regiment.

Bayar was elected to the Ottoman Parliament as deputy of Saruhan (today Manisa) in the 1919 election, where he gave speeches denouncing the palace's indifference to allied occupation.

Following the occupation of Constantinople, he fled to Ankara to join Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) Pasha and the Turkish Independence Movement.

While on the road the Anzavur rebellion threatened Bursa, so Mustafa Kemal asked Bayar to stay in Bursa to fend the rebels off.

He was briefly a member of the Green Army Organization and the Turkish Communist Party, a foax communist party set up by Mustafa Kemal to counter the influence of the Communist Party of Turkey.

He became the deputy of Bursa in the newly established Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

The same year, he served as deputy minister of the economy and ın 1921 he was appointed as the minister of the economy.

An advocate of liberal economic policies, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk appointed Bayar prime minister in 1937 to liberalize the economy, until he resigned in 1939 under Atatürk's successor, İsmet İnönü.

Until 1945, he was a member of Republican People's Party (CHP) which was the sole legal party.

In 1946, he founded the Democrat Party along with Adnan Menderes, Fuat Köprülü and Refik Koraltan beginning Turkey's multiparty period, which still goes on to this day.

A peaceful transfer of power from the CHP to DP happened in the 1950 elections, after which Bayar as elected Turkey's third president.

He was subsequently re-elected in 1954 and 1957, serving for 10 years as president.

In that period, Menderes was his prime minister.

He was overthrown and incarcerated after the 1960 coup d'etat, and advocated for the restoration of rights of former politicians associated with the Democrat Party following his release.

Celâl Bayar died on 22 August 1986 at the age of 103 after a brief illness.

He is considered to be the longest-lived former head of state and was the longest-lived state leader until 8 December 2008 (when he was surpassed by Chau Sen Cocsal Chhum).