Aydın Güven Gürkan (May 10, 1941

Elazığ Elazığ () is a city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey, and the administrative centre of Elazığ Province and Elazığ District. It is located in the uppermost Euphrates valley. The plain on which the city extends has an altitude of . El ...

-January 22, 2006

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

) was a Turkish academic and politician.

Early life

He was born in Elazığ on 10 May 1941. In 1963, he graduated from the Faculty of

Political Sciences Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

Ankara University Ankara University ( tr, Ankara Üniversitesi) is a public university in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in Turkey after the formation of the republic in 1923. The university has 40 vocat ...

. In 1970, he completed his doctorate studies in the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

with highest honors

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

. Returned to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, in addition to teaching, he served as the dean of Faculty of Journalism in

Gazi University Gazi University ( tr, Gazi Üniversitesi) is a public university primarily located in Ankara, Turkey. It was established in 1926 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as Gazi Teacher Training Institute. In 1982, it was reorganized by merging with the Bolu ...

. In 1981, he resigned from his post protesting the Council of Higher Education.

Political career

All Turkish parties were closed in 1981 by the military rule so called by the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...

(MGK). In 1983, the MGK decided to allow the formation of new parties with severe restrictions. Aydın Güven Gürkan joined People's Party ( tr, Halkçı Parti, HP)) a new party on the track of

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party ( tr, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, , acronymized as CHP ) is a Kemalist and social-democratic political party in Turkey which currently stands as the main opposition party. It is also the oldest political party ...

(, which is usually credited as the founder of Turkish Republic in 1923. In the first elections following the military rule, Aydın Güven Gürkan was elected as the deputy from

Antalya Province Antalya Province ( tr, ) is located on the Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. Antalya Province is the centre of Turkey's tourism industry, attracting 30% of foreign tourists visit ...

Opposition leader

On 1 July 1985, he was elected as the chairman of the party. His party was the main opposition party in the parliament. But by 1985, two other parties on the track of CHP were more popular than HP. He decided to fuse HP with the other parties with similar ideology. Although

Bülent Ecevit Mustafa Bülent Ecevit (; 28 May 1925 – 5 November 2006) was a Turkish politician, statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist, who served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002. He served as prime minister in ...

, the leader of

DSP DSP may refer to: Computing * Digital signal processing, the mathematical manipulation of an information signal * Digital signal processor, a microprocessor designed for digital signal processing * Yamaha DSP-1, a proprietary digital signal ...

was reluctant, Gürkan and

Erdal İnönü Erdal İnönü (6 June 1926 – 31 October 2007) was a Turkish theoretical physicist and politician, who served as the interim Prime Minister of Turkey between 16 May and 25 June 1993. He also served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey from ...

, the chairman of

SODEP The Social Democracy Party ( tr, Sosyal Demokrasi Partisi, SODEP) of Turkey was one of the two main parties of Turkey in early 1980s but later on merged with the People's Party to form the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) in 1985. Ideolo ...

agreed on a merge plan. On 3 November 1985, two parties fused to form Social Democrat Populist Party ( tr, Sosyal Demokrat Halkçı Parti, SHP) electing Gürkan the chairman of the new party. But in 1986, he was replaced by Erdal İnönü.

Later years

Gürkan served one term as the vice chairman of SHP, and in 1991 he was elected as the deputy from

Mersin Province Mersin Province ( tr, ), formerly İçel Province ( tr, ), is a province in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast between Antalya and Adana. The provincial capital and the biggest city in the province is Mersin, which is composed of fo ...

(then known as İçel Province) and served as the Minister of Labour and Social Security during the DYP-SHP coalition government in the 1990s. After SHP-newly established CHP fusion in 1995 however, he became a passive member of the party, and finally resigned from CHP. Except for a brief membership in New Turkey Party in 2002, he did not participate in politics.

Illness and death

Aydın Güven Gürkan died in the morning hours of January 22, 2006 in the intensive care unit of a hospital in

, where he was delivered shortly before. He had been on treatment for

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...

three years long. He had undergone a stomach surgery one and half years before, and was since then on

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

. He had a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

one month ago. Gürkan was survived by his wife

Serap Aksoy Fatma Serap Aksoy (born in 1955) is a Turkish–American medical entomologist. Early life and education Aksoy was born in Fatih, Istanbul in 1955. After graduating from Robert College, she moved to the United States for her Bachelor of Scie ...

, a theatre and film actress from profession, and his daughter Burcu Gürkan. She was buried in Tuzla Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurkan, Aydin Guven 2006 deaths 1941 births People from Elazığ Populist Party (Turkey) politicians Social Democratic Populist Party (Turkey) politicians Republican People's Party (Turkey) politicians Leaders of the Opposition (Turkey) Leaders of political parties in Turkey Ministers of Labour and Social Security of Turkey Deputies of Antalya Deputies of Mersin Deputies of Izmir Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences alumni University of Cologne alumni Academic staff of Gazi University Deaths from stomach cancer Deaths from cancer in Turkey Members of the 20th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 50th government of Turkey Turkish political party founders