Deniz Baykal

Deniz Baykal (20 July 1938 – 11 February 2023) was a Turkish politician.

Baykal first became involved in politics during the 1950s, having taken part in student movements opposing the Democratic Party (Turkish: Demokrat Parti) government of Adnan Menderes.

Following this, he completed his Ph.D. by 1963 at the University of Ankara Faculty of Political Science.

He was noticed by senior officials of the CHP after writing a detailed analysis of the party's defeat in the 1965 general election, which would form the basis of his academic thesis that he submitted to become a docent.

Like many politicians of the 1970s, Baykal was arrested and detained in Ankara, receiving a ban of five years from the military on grounds of political activities.

First elected to Parliament in 1973, Baykal went on to serve as Minister of Finance in the CHP-MSP coalition of 1974 and as Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in the third government of Bülent Ecevit from 1978 to 1979.

He became an associate professor at the same faculty, where he lectured until 1973.

In the 1973 general election, he was elected as a CHP Member of Parliament for Antalya.

At the time of his election, he was the youngest MP in Parliament.

In the short-lived coalition government of Bülent Ecevit that had been formed with the Islamist National Salvation Party led by Necmettin Erbakan, Baykal become the Minister of Finance.

His tenure would last under a year, with the unlikely partnership between the secular-orientated CHP and the Islamist-orientated MSP collapsing in November 1974.

Baykal became the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in the third cabinet of Bülent Ecevit, which lasted from January 1978 to November 1979.

The government had a narrow vote of confidence in Parliament due to a loose coalition with independent MPs, the Democratic Party and the Republican Reliance Party.

Despite the government maintaining a small majority, the CHP lost ground in the Senate and by-elections held in October 1979, causing Ecevit to resign.

At the same time as serving as Energy and Natural Resources Minister, Baykal was also elected to the CHP Party Council and served as both a Central Executive Committee member and a deputy Secretary General of the party.

In the party convention held after the disappointing 1979 senate and by-elections, he was heavily critical of the party's established executive.

With the CHP shut down during the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, Baykal was briefly imprisoned before being elected to Parliament once again in 1987 from the new Social Democratic People's Party (SHP).

As a result, Ecevit, Süleyman Demirel and other key politicians of the pre-1980 era returned to politics alongside Baykal.

Baykal joined the Social Democracy Party SODEP in 1984.

In a constitutional referendum held in 1987, the electorate voted to lift all political bans from the coup-era.

SODEP merged with the Populist Party (SHP) in 1987 and Baykal was elected again as an MP from Antalya in 1987 general elections.

He was elected to the second chair of the Social Democratic Populist Party as the General Secretary in 1988 and served as the party's parliamentary group leader.

He stood as General secretary on 10 September 1990, after which he stood against the party's leader Erdal İnönü three times but failed to win on all occasions.

Having served in numerous government positions, Baykal led the CHP from 1992 to February 1995, from September 1995 to 1999 and again from 2000 to 2010.

Baykal was one of the leading members of the re-established CHP, which was founded again in 1992.

A member of the Republican People's Party (CHP) who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 1996.

He served as the party's leader until 1995, when the CHP and SHP merged during a convention.

He was re-elected leader in September 1995, after which Baykal contested the 1995 general election and formed a coalition government with Tansu Çiller's True Path Party.

He served concurrently as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1995 and 1996.

Leading the CHP into a landslide defeat in the 1999 general election, Baykal resigned after the party was entirely ejected from Parliament for failing to surpass the 10% election threshold.

Regardless, he was re-elected as leader in 2000 and led the party to a moderate success in the 2002 general election, becoming the Leader of the Opposition.

Between 2002 and 2010, he also served as the Leader of the Opposition by virtue of leading the second largest party in the Parliament.

As the oldest MP in Parliament following the June 2015 general election, Baykal briefly served as the interim Speaker of the Grand National Assembly.

He was the CHP's candidate to become the permanent Parliamentary Speaker for the 25th Parliament of Turkey in the June–July 2015 speaker elections, but lost to Justice and Development Party candidate İsmet Yılmaz.

Following a breakdown of coalition talks after the election, Baykal was offered a ministerial position in the subsequent interim election government formed by AKP leader Ahmet Davutoğlu, which he turned down in line with the party executive's decision.

He became interim parliamentary Speaker for a second time on 17 November 2015 by virtue of being the oldest MP after the November 2015 general election.

He was succeeded by the AKP MP İsmail Kahraman, who was elected Speaker on 22 November 2015.

Baykal was born to Hüseyin Hilmi and Feride in Antalya.

He was educated at the University of Ankara Faculty of Law.

He later studied at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University as a Rockefeller scholar.