Former Turkish President Demirel passes away

Former Turkish Prime Minister and President Süleyman Demirel, who was twice toppled by the military only to subsequently return to power, has died at the age of 91.

Turkish authorities declared three days of national mourning over the passing of Demirel, known as "Baba" or "Father," to his supporters in Turkey's farming heartland during his years in power.

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu expressed "deep sorrow" over Demirel's death early on June 17, while opposition party leaders from the left and right also expressed their condolences. 

Demirel, who served as prime minister seven times through the 1960s to the 1990s and was president from 1993 to 2000, died at Güven Hospital in Ankara where he had been undergoing treatment for a respiratory tract infection.

A ceremony will be held in Ankara on June 19, before he will be laid to rest in Isparta, his hometown, where he was born on Nov. 20, 1924, in a village in which he could have easily been obliged to stay all his life and earn his living through shepherding. 

"My becoming a prime minister, and then a president after moving from a village is one of the greatest virtues of the Republic [of Turkey]," Demirel said.

On every convenient occasion, he used to express how he owed a lot to the republic.
 
Demirel became a civil servant in his youth, going to work at the state's electrical power planning department in 1949 and undertaking postgraduate studies on irrigation, electrical technologies and dam construction in the United States, in a period that lasted until 1955. He went into politics in 1962. 

"I want to give the message to the Turkish youth that if I could succeed, you can succeed, too," Demirel said in a...