Political survey

Political Survey from 1922 until today:
1923: The Turkish Republic established and Mustafa Kemal elected president.
10th of November 1938: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk died and succeeded as President by Ismet Inönü, who stayed in power until 1953.
1953: A multiparty system allowed and the subsequent election surprisingly won by Adnan Menderes. Seven years later he was removed by a military coup and shortly after hanged as a traitor. This was regretted later and several streets and airports in the larger cities of Turkey are now named after him.
1960-1970: This period marked by changing leaders. In 1970 Turkey once more experienced a military coup. This time Süleyman Demirel was removed from power after a political crisis amongst the different factions.
Years later Süleyman Demirel would return to Turkish politics and at the beginning of the 90's be elected prime minister before becoming President in 1993. A post he performed until 2000.
As a result of his ability to overcome problems and time after time return to the political stage, the English newspaper, The Times, chose him as one of the smartest men in the world.
1980: A vicious 10 year cycle followed before another military coup took place after further problems among the political factions.
This time the political battle was very bloody and claimed hundreds of victims. The military ruled the country for three years until a new election was called in 1983.
1983: The election was won by the conservative ANAP party run by Turgut Özal. He was prime minister for eight years and then was elected president. He died in 1993 from a heart attack.
After many years of economical and social problems, Turgut Özal was able at last to break Turkey's political isolation.
2003: The latest election in November 2002 had an unexpected winner, when a moderate muslim party with Recep Tayyip Erdogan in charge achieved a large majority.
Ahmet Necdet Sezer was elected president after Demirel.
So far the party has done a particularly good job and gained recognition for their open and modern politics all over the world. The party is trying to bring Turkey closer to acceptance into the European Union. To this end it is implementing lots of new reforms which are hoped will remove bureaucracy and old obsolete rules and procedures.