Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu (December 31, 1954 – March 25, 2009) was a Turkish politician and member of the

Parliament of Turkey 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 ...

. He was the leader and founder of the

Great Union Party The Great Unity Party ( tr, Büyük Birlik Partisi, BBP) or Great Union Party is a far-right Sunni Islamist and ultranationalist political party in Turkey, created on 29 January 1993.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 political ideology ...

Biography

Yazıcıoğlu was born 1954 in a small village named

Elmalı Elmalı is a town and district in Antalya Province, the Mediterranean region of Turkey. It lies about inland, near the town of Korkuteli and west of the city of Antalya. In 2007, the population for the whole district was 36.213, of which 14,03 ...

Şarkışla Şarkışla is a town in the Central Anatolian Sivas Province of Turkey. The mayor is Ahmet Turgay Oğuz ( AKP). 2011 population of Şarkışla is 39.413. Aşık Veysel, one of the most famous Turkish folk poets and folk music singers of the 2 ...

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, Kayseri ...

. 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 ( 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 ...

. 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 u ...

struggling for

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

during the 1970s. After

1980 Turkish coup d'état The 1980 Turkish coup d'état ( tr, 12 Eylül Darbesi), headed by Chief of the General Staff General Kenan Evren, was the third coup d'état in the history of the Republic of Turkey, the previous having been the 1960 coup and the 1971 coup by ...

, 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 been ...

. In 1991, he and some of his fellows left this movement and established a new political party called

Great Union Party The Great Unity Party ( tr, Büyük Birlik Partisi, BBP) or Great Union Party is a far-right Sunni Islamist and ultranationalist political party in Turkey, created on 29 January 1993.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 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 as p ...

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

, the party won 1.1% of the popular vote and no seats; in the

2007 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2007. * Electoral calendar 2007 * Elections in 2007 * 2007 United Nations Security Council election Africa * 52nd National Conference of the African National Congress * 2007 Algerian legislative el ...

Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu was elected as an independent. Yazıcıoğlu died on March 25, 2009, in a

helicopter crash A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

in the southern Turkish province of

Kahramanmaraş Marash (Armenian: Մարաշ), officially Kahramanmaraş () and historically Germanicea (Greek: Γερμανίκεια), is a city in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey and the administrative center of Kahramanmaraş Province. Before 1973, Kahrama ...

, 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 s ...

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 The Kocatepe Mosque ( tr, Kocatepe Camii) is the largest mosque in Ankara, Turkey. It was built between 1967 and 1987 in the Kocatepe quarter in Kızılay, and its size and prominent situation have made it a landmark that can be seen from almost a ...

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 a ...

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 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 ...

than an accident. According to Ismail Güneş's

autopsy An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...

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 Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

Aydın Özsıcak dismantling the

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

of the helicopter. This tape was denied by the then-Turkish prime minister

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

. 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