Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu (December 31, 1954 – March 25, 2009) was a Turkish politician and member of the Parliament of Turkey. He was the leader and founder of the Great Union Party (BBP), a right-wing, nationalist-Islamist

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Biography

Yazıcıoğlu was born 1954 in a small village named Elmalı in Şarkışla of

Sivas Province Sivas Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey. It is largely located at the eastern part of the Central Anatolia region of Turkey; it is the second largest province in Turkey by territory. Its adjacent provinces are Yozgat to the west, Kays ...

. He studied in Şarkışla from primary school to high school after that he was educated at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Ankara University. He was a member of

Grey Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

struggling for

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

during the 1970s. After 1980 Turkish coup d'état, he was arrested for being one of the leaders of Grey Wolves. He stayed for 7 years in prison. After the years of imprisonment, he was released in 1987 by being cleared of blame. In the following years, he involved in politics under

Nationalist Movement Party The Nationalist Movement Party (alternatively translated as Nationalist Action Party; tr, Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP) is a Turkish far-right and ultranationalist political party. The group is often described as neo-fascist, and has bee ...

. In 1991, he and some of his fellows left this movement and established a new political party called Great Union Party next year. His party has been represented in the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

only via electoral coalitions with popular parties. At the 2002

legislative A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

, the party won 1.1% of the popular vote and no seats; in the 2007 elections Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu was elected as an independent. Yazıcıoğlu died on March 25, 2009, in a helicopter crash in the southern Turkish province of Kahramanmaraş, after a political rally there on the way to the next rally in

Yozgat Yozgat is a city and the capital district of Yozgat Province in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. According to 2019 census, population of the district is 421,200 of which 106,280 live in the city of Yozgat. History The first surveys were ...

just four days before the local elections. He received a state funeral to which most of the party leaders attended. Thousands of people joined his funeral ceremony in Kocatepe Mosque in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

. After his death, in the 2009 local elections the BBP's candidate was elected as the new mayor of

Sivas Sivas (Latin and Greek: ''Sebastia'', ''Sebastea'', Σεβάστεια, Σεβαστή, ) is a city in central Turkey and the seat of Sivas Province. The city, which lies at an elevation of in the broad valley of the Kızılırmak river, is ...

Controversies surrounding death

After the helicopter crash, journalist Ismail Güneş who was one of the passengers, called the Turkish emergency service number 112 and was able to talk to the dispatcher clearly. He explained how the helicopter fell in a way which made some people believe that the crash was more of an assassination than an accident. According to Ismail Güneş's autopsy his chin was broken after the crash, suggesting he wouldn't have been able to talk to the dispatcher. Locals and soldiers searched for the corpses for 48 hours until the bodies were found. A Turkish magazine called '' Aksiyon Magazine'' also published a special file on the blood of the deceased that there was

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...

before the helicopter fell. According to Köksal Akpınar, it was proven that the carbon monoxide values in the blood of pilot Kaya İstekte and journalist İsmail Güneş were much higher when the helicopter was falling. There is a tape illustrating Sergeant Aydın Özsıcak dismantling the

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

of the helicopter. This tape was denied by the then-Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. However, after the failed military coup in 2016, President Erdoğan published the video since Aydın Özsıcak was one of the sergeants who tried to overthrow Erdoğan during the coup. Today, the reason for the accident still remains a mystery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yazicioglu, Muhsin 1954 births 2009 deaths People from Şarkışla Turkish Sunni Muslims Turkish veterinarians Great Unity Party politicians Deputies of Sivas Grey Wolves (organization) members Leaders of political parties in Turkey Victims of helicopter accidents or incidents Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Turkey Members of the 23rd Parliament of Turkey Members of the 20th Parliament of Turkey