Devlet Bahçeli

An academic in economics from Gazi University, Bahçeli is a founder of the Grey Wolves, and was elected as the chairman of the MHP in the first congress held after the death of Alparslan Türkeş in 1997. He entered parliament for the first time in the 1999 general election as a deputy from Osmaniye, taking part as deputy prime minister in DSP-MHP-ANAP coalition between 1999 and 2002, and ultimately brought the government down. He resigned from his position as chairman when his party fell below the 10% electoral threshold in the 2002 general election, but was re-elected chairman in the 2003 congress. Bahçeli and his party have been serving in the Grand National Assembly since regaining their seats in parliament in 2007.^[4][5]


Bahçeli was initially a fierce critic of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan throughout the 2000s and 2010s until an interparty crisis occurred following MHP's poor performance in the November 2015 general election. With Bahçeli's newfound closeness to Erdoğan after the crisis, a schism occurred in MHP which culminated in Meral Akşener founding the Good Party in 2017.


Bahçeli formed an electoral alliance with the AKP called the People's Alliance for the 2018 general election and maintained this alliance in the 2019 local elections. MHP currently supports president Erdoğan's cabinet with confidence and supply in the Grand National Assembly. Bahçeli has been described as a kingmaker in Turkish politics.^[6][7]

Early life[edit]

Devlet Bahçeli was born on 1 January 1948, in the rural district of Bahçe in the province of Osmaniye. According to his own account, Bahçeli belonged to a well established Turkmen family known as "Fettahoğulları",^[8][9] and is one of the four children of his family, with two siblings from his father's first marriage.^[10] According to Hrant Dink, he also has Armenian ancestry, in spite of his fervently anti-Armenian views.^[11]


His father, Salih Bahçeli, was one of the well-known farmers and merchants of Osmaniye. His mother's name was Samiye.^[12] Devlet's father grew up in a left-wing family, and was a supporter of İsmet İnönü and the Republican People's Party.^[13][14]

Education[edit]

He completed his primary education at 7 Ocak Primary School in his hometown of Osmaniye.^[15] Devlet attended secondary school with his elder brother Servet, in Adana Private Çukurova College. He lived with his relatives in İstanbul for his high school education and enrolled in Emirgan Akgün College. In his second year of high school, Bahçeli transferred to Private Ata College in Etiler and received his high school diploma from this school. He was accepted into Gazi University in 1967 and graduated from its Foreign Trade Department in 1971. Among his classmates were future political rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who Bahçeli called "my classmate" in numerous occasions^[16] and former football referee Erman Toroğlu.^[17]


Bahçeli worked as an assistant in the department of economics at Gazi University and affiliated high schools in 1972. During this period he was one of the founders of the Idealist Association of Financiers and Economists, and one of the founders and chairman of the Association of University Academy and Schools Assistants (UMID-BIR). He also founded and was leader of the University Academy and Schools Assistantship Association (ÜNAY). He received his doctorate in economics from Gazi University Institute of Social Sciences and continued lecturing in the department of economic policy at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences of the same university until 1987. Dr. Bahçeli was also interested in Turkish history, economics, and foreign policy while working for his degree.^[18]

Early political career[edit]

In his youth, Bahçeli attended Alparslan Türkeş's seminars, chairman of the Republican Villagers Nation Party, the predecessor of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). While he was still a student at Gazi University in 1967, he worked as the founder and manager of the Grey Wolves. He served as the general secretary of the National Turkish Students' Union between 1970 and 1971.^[18]


After the 1980 coup Bahçeli defended executives and members of the MHP and other nationalist organizations who were imprisoned. Bahçeli resigned from his teaching position in 1987, when Türkeş requested his involvement in party politics, and was elected general secretary of the Nationalist Task Party (MÇP) in their 1987 congress. Bahçeli served in several positions in the upper echelons of MÇP and MHP at various times.^[19]