İsmail Nihat Erim (30 November 1912 – 19 July 1980) was a Turkish

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

. He served as the 13th Prime Minister of Turkey for almost 14 months after the 1971 Turkish military memorandum. He was

assassinated Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...

by the

Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front ( tr, Devrimci Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi or DHKP-C) is a far-left Marxist–Leninist Communist party in Turkey. It was founded in 1978 as Revolutionary Left (Turkish: or ), and has been inv ...

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, ...

in 1980.

Biography

Nihat Erim was born in Kandıra to Raif Erim and Macide Erim. After graduating from

Istanbul University , image = Istanbul_University_logo.svg , image_size = 200px , latin_name = Universitas Istanbulensis , motto = tr, Tarihten Geleceğe Bilim Köprüsü , mottoeng = Science Bridge from Past to the Future , established = 1453 1846 1933 ...

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

School in 1936, he studied further to earn his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

degree in

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Law School in 1939. He 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 ...

to become an assistant professor in 1939 and professor in 1942 at the

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 ...

School of Law. He was appointed as legal advisor to the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

in 1943 while he was still in the university. He also served as an advisor in the Turkish committee at the conference on the foundation of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

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in 1945. That same year, he was elected and served as the

Kocaeli Province Kocaeli Province ( tr, Kocaeli ili, ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province of Turkey and one of only three not to have the same official name as its capital, İzmit, which is thus also sometimes called Kocaeli. The province is the successor of the ...

representative at the

Turkish Parliament The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...

to join the

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 ...

( tr, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP) group at the parliament. In 1949, he served as the minister of public works and later as

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

. Erim was married to Kamile Erim née Okutman and has two children Işık Erim and Işıl Onalp née Erim. He has five grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

Political career

In 1950, when CHP lost the majority in the parliament after the elections, he lost his seat and became the chief politics editor and leading writer of the newspaper "'' Ulus''" ("''Nation''"). When it was closed down by the government, he went on to publish his own newspaper, "''Yeni Ulus–Halkçı''" ("''New Nation–Populist''") in 1953. In 1956, he participated at the negotiations on

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

. The same year, he was selected as the Turkish member of the

European Commission on Human Rights The European Commission of Human Rights was a special body of the Council of Europe. From 1954 to the entry into force of Protocol 11 to the European Convention on Human Rights, individuals did not have direct access to the European Court of Hu ...

to serve in this position until 1962. He led the Turkish committee on the preparation of the Cyprus constitution in 1959, following Zurich and London Agreements. He continued legally advising the Turkish committees at further negotiations on Cyprus at the

. After the military coup of 1960, once again he was elected and served as Kocaeli representative in the parliament, and this time as head of the CHP group. He was one of the focal points of internal conflicts of CHP, opposing the leader

İsmet İnönü Mustafa İsmet İnönü (; 24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish army officer and statesman of Kurdish descent, who served as the second President of Turkey from 11 November 1938 to 22 May 1950, and its Prime Minister three tim ...

. The conflict resulted in him being ousted from the party in 1962. He was re-elected to the party's ruling committee taking second highest votes, thus joining the party again. He served as the Turkish representative at the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

between 1961 and 1970, and was elected as deputy secretary general in 1961. In 1969, he was appointed as a member of the UN

International Law Commission The International Law Commission (ILC) is a body of experts responsible for helping develop and codify international law. It is composed of 34 individuals recognized for their expertise and qualifications in international law, who are elected by t ...

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Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. In Turkey, after a spree of political violence, and the coup by memorandum, the army forced the resignation of prime minister

Süleyman Demirel Süleyman Sami Demirel (; 1 November 1924 – 17 June 2015) was a Turkish people, Turkish politician, engineer, and statesman who served as the List of Presidents of Turkey, 9th President of Turkey from 1993 to 2000. He previously served as the ...

on 12 March 1971. Nihat Erim, while still at the university, was advised to withdraw from his post in the Republican People's Party (CHP) 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 ...

, which was then heavily influenced by the military.

Prime Minister

He was appointed a neutral and technocratic prime minister on 26 March 1971 to form a "national unity" coalition government (see

33rd government of Turkey The 33rd government of Turkey (26 March 1971 – 11 December 1971) was a government in the history of Turkey. It is also called ''the first Erim government''. Background After the memorandum of the army on 12 March 1971, prime minister Süleyma ...

), the first of a series of weak governments until the elections in 1973. During his tenure he ruled out the existence of another nationality living in Turkey and the

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

population in the country was oppressed. One of the actions in regards of the Kurdish question during Erim's prime ministry was the closing down of the

Workers Party of Turkey Workers' Party of Turkey (''Türkiye İşçi Partisi'') was a Turkish political party, founded the 13 February 1961. It became the first socialist party in Turkey to win representation in the national parliament. It was banned twice (after the mi ...

( tr, Türkiye İşçi Partisi, TİP) for its recognition of the Kurds as a distinct ethnicity. Erim was forced to resign when 11 technocratic ministers of his cabinet resigned as a body on 3 December 1971. However, he was appointed once more by the President

Cevdet Sunay Cevdet Sunay (; 10 February 1899 – 22 May 1982) was a Turkish politician and army officer, who served as the fifth President of Turkey from 1966 to 1973. Early life and career Sunay was born in 1899 in Trabzon, in the Ottoman Empire. A ...

, and he formed his second cabinet on 11 December 1971. He resigned on 17 April 1972 on health grounds, when his decision to promulgate decree laws was not backed by the parliament. His resignation was approved on 22 May 1972, and

Ferit Melen Ferit Sadi Melen (2 November 1906 – 3 September 1988) was a Turkish civil servant, politician and Prime Minister of Turkey. Biography After graduating from high school in Bursa, he obtained a degree in finance from the School of Political ...

, representative of the

Van Province Van Province ( tr, Van ili, ku, Parezgêha Wanê, Armenian: Վանի մարզ) is a province in the Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey, between Lake Van and the Iranian border. It is 19,069 km2 in area and had a population of 1,035,418 at ...

and minister of national defense in his cabinet, was appointed as the new prime minister and formed his own cabinet. During his premiership, a significant contribution he made to Turkish politics was to form a ministry of culture (today in the form of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism), which was until then a mere department within the ministry of education. He appointed Talat Halman, journalist-writer, as the minister to this newly formed post. His government's prohibition of

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

poppy harvesting in June 1971 under US pressure fired controversy. A change in the constitution brought together a witch hunt for leftists, reaching its peak after the abduction and killing of the Israeli ambassador Efraim Elrom in May 1971.

Assassination

Erim was shot to death by two gunmen near his home in

Kartal Kartal is a district of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the Asian side of the city, on the coast of the Marmara Sea between Maltepe and Pendik. Despite being far from the city centre, Kartal is heavily populated (total population of 541,209) (200 ...

on 19 July 1980. Radical leftist Turkish militant group

Dev Sol The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front ( tr, Devrimci Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi or DHKP-C) is a far-left Marxist–Leninist Communist party in Turkey. It was founded in 1978 as Revolutionary Left (Turkish: or ), and has been in ...

(Revolutionary Left) claimed responsibility for the attack. The assassination might have accelerated the

military coup A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such ...

on September 12 of that year led by

chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

Kenan Evren. The motive behind the assassination is thought to be related to the approval by the parliament of the execution of three leftist militants, one being

Deniz Gezmiş Deniz Gezmiş (27 February 1947 – 6 May 1972) was a Turkish Marxist-Leninist revolutionary, student leader, and political activist in Turkey in the late 1960s. He was one of the founding members of the People's Liberation Army of Turkey (THK ...

, during his service as prime minister. Erim's assassination was part of the wave of political violence in Turkey in the late 1970s between left-wing Marxist and right-wing ultranationalist groups.

Books

*''Le Positivisme Juridique et le Droit International'' (Judicial Positivism and International Law), 1939. *''XVII. Yüzyıldan Zamanımııza Kadar Tabii Hukuk Nazariyeleri'' (Natural Theories of Law from 17th Century Until Today), translation from Le Fur, 1940. *''Amme Hukuku Dersleri'' (Public Law Lessons), 1941. *''Devletlerarası Amme Hukuku'' (International Public Law), translation from Le Fur, 1944. *''Siyasi Tarih ve Devletlerararası Hukuk Metinleri'' (Political History and International Law Texts), 1953.

References

*Kılıçlıoğlu, Safa; Araz, Nezihe; Devrim, Hakkı; (eds.) (1969). Erim (Nihat). In ''Meydan-Larousse Büyük Lügat ve Ansiklopedisi'', Vol. 4; p. 319. Meydan Yayınevi, Istanbul. {{DEFAULTSORT:Erim, Nihat 1912 births 1980 deaths 1980 murders in Asia 20th-century prime ministers of Turkey People from Kandıra People from Hüdavendigâr vilayet Republican People's Party (Turkey) politicians Prime Ministers of Turkey Deputy Prime Ministers of Turkey Members of the 34th government of Turkey Deputies of Kocaeli Members of the Senate of the Republic (Turkey) Ministers of Public Works of Turkey Members of the 17th government of Turkey Members of the 18th government of Turkey Members of the 33rd government of Turkey International Law Commission officials Galatasaray High School alumni Istanbul University Faculty of Law alumni University of Paris alumni Ankara University faculty Assassinated Turkish politicians Deaths by firearm in Turkey People murdered in Turkey Burials at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery Turkish officials of the United Nations Political violence in Turkey Turkish expatriates in France