Muhsin YazıcıoÄŸlu (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 Unity Party (BBP), a far-right, nationalist-Islamist
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
.
Biography
Yazıcıoğlu was born 1954 in a small village named
Elmalı
Elmalı is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Antalya Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,433 km2, and its population is 40,774 (2022). It lies about inland, near the town of Korkuteli and west of the city of Antalya.
Formerl ...
in
Şarkışla
Şarkışla is a town in the Central Anatolian Sivas Province of Turkey. It is the seat of Şarkışla District.Sivas Province
Sivas Province () is a province of Turkey. It is located in the eastern part of the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. Its area is 28,164 km2 (the second largest province after Konya), and its population is 634,924 (2022). Its adjacent prov ...
. He studied in Şarkışla from primary school to high school after that he was educated at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in
Ankara University
Ankara University () is a public university, public research university in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. It was the first higher education institution founded in Turkey after the History of the Republic of Turkey, formation of the Turkish republ ...
. He was a member of the ultranationalist Grey Wolves. After the
, Yazıcıoğlu was arrested for being one of the leaders of Grey Wolves. He stayed for seven years in prison until his release in 1987. In the following years, Yazıcıoğlu was involved in politics as a member of the far-right
Nationalist Movement Party
The Nationalist Movement Party, or alternatively translated as Nationalist Action Party (, MHP), is a Turkish Far-right politics, far-right, ultranationalism, ultranationalist Political parties in Turkey, political party. The group is often de ...
. In 1991, he and some of his fellows left this movement and established a new political party called Great Unity Party with a more Islamist ideology.
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: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
only via electoral coalitions with popular parties. At the 2002
legislative
A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers ...
elections
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
, the party won 1.1% of the popular vote and no seats; in the 2007 elections Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu was elected as an independent.
Death
Yazıcıoğlu died on March 25, 2009, in a helicopter crash in the southern Turkish province of
KahramanmaraÅŸ
KahramanmaraÅŸ (), historically Marash (; ) and Germanicea (), is a city in the Mediterranean Region, Turkey, Mediterranean region of Turkey and the administrative centre of KahramanmaraÅŸ Province, KahramanmaraÅŸ province. After 1973, MaraÅŸ was ...
, after a political rally there on the way to the next rally in
Yozgat
Yozgat is a city in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Yozgat Province and Yozgat District.Kocatepe Mosque in
Ankara
Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...
. After his death, in the 2009 local elections the BBP's candidate was elected as the new mayor of
Sivas
Sivas is a city in central Turkey. It is the seat of Sivas Province and Sivas District.Ä°l Beledi ...