Ex-Turkey PM Ecevit dies at 81

Ecevit, a political force in Turkey for close to half a century, died at Ankara's GATA military hospital after nearly six months in a coma following a stroke. He had been rushed to the hospital on May 18.

Ecevit served as premier from 1999 to 2002, when his party suffered a crushing electoral defeat at the hands of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's newly formed Justice and Development Party. Ecevit won just 1 percent of the vote -- the worst electoral defeat of his nearly 50-year political career -- after voters held him responsible for a 2001 economic crisis that saw millions of layoffs.

Ecevit's ailing health also led to a loss of public confidence and turned voters towards the young and charismatic Erdogan and his populist, Islamic-rooted party.

Ecevit started his career as a staunchly left-wing leader but later became an American ally, a transformation that mirrored changes in his country, which has gone from a largely insular nation to one that is increasingly opening up to the West, but is not always comfortable with the changes.

Under Ecevit, Turkey was accepted as a candidate for membership in the European Union in 1999. He supported U.S. use of a Turkish air base for flights over northern Iraq and agreed to sell off key state companies to private investors.

When a trade unionist once asked for measures to shield Turkish industry from foreign competition, Ecevit replied jokingly: "You are speaking like the old Ecevit."

Ecevit, who served five times as premier and was imprisoned following the 1980 military coup, was best known for ordering the 1974 invasion of Cyprus that led to the division of the Mediterranean island and for serving as prime minister during the 1999 capture of Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Ecevit, a published poet and former journalist, was born in Istanbul in May 1925. He was educated at an American high school in Istanbul where he met his wife Rahsan, a painter, who would become his closest aide and political ally.

Ecevit worked as a journalist in the 1950s with a newspaper close to the left-of-center Republican People's Party and entered parliament with that party in 1957. He quickly rose within the ranks of the party and took over the leadership in 1972, toppling Ismet Inonu, a one-time president and a national war hero.

Ecevit was in and out of power as premier four times during the years before the 1980 military coup, a time marred by a deep economic crisis and violent street clashes between leftists and right-wing militants.

Following the coup, Ecevit was imprisoned and wrote daily letters to his wife, which often ended with the words, "I have no complaints other than missing you."

Making a comeback in the late 1990s, Ecevit -- then in his 70s, abandoned the strong nationalist rhetoric of his earlier years and backed Turkish moves towards a free-market economy, supported its bid to join the European Union and reconciled with the United States.

Pushed by the International Monetary Fund, he also embarked on an ambitious privatization program, agreeing for example to the sale of the telecommunications monopoly, Turk Telekom, and Turkish Airlines.

Although Ecevit maintained an honest, corruption-free image throughout his life -- he often spurned luxury cars for cheap Turkish-made models -- he was accused of blocking corruption investigations into political allies out of concern for government stability.

He is survived by Rahsan. The couple did not have any children. The Associated Press

/CNN/