The MHP's withdrawal from the coalition led to the government's collapse, and in the subsequent 2002 snap election, the DSP was ejected from parliament after being unable to clear the electoral threshold.

He was named after his paternal grandfather Mustafa Şükrü Efendi,[2][3][4] who was an Islamic scholar of Kurdish origin with roots in the region of Tunceli[5] but born in a village in Kastamonu.

[6] Mustafa Şükrü's son and Bülent's father Fahri Ecevit was a professor of forensic medicine in Ankara University's Law School.

[7] Bülent Ecevit's maternal great-grandfather was the Meccan Sheikh-ul-Islam Hacı Emin Pasha, who served to protect the holy sights of Hejaz in the Ottoman Empire.

The inheritance of his estate, which consisted of approximately 110 decares of land and 99 acres of the Masjid an-Nabawi was left to him once Ecevit's mother died.

In the end Ecevit donated the proceeds of the estate to the Directorate of Religious Affairs for the benefit of Turkish Hajjis, after his retirement from politics.

In 1946, shortly after marrying his classmate Zekiye Rahşan Aral, he moved to London to work in the Turkish embassy as a press attaché.

[13] In 1955 Ecevit went to the United States for three months as a guest journalist for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina, and was disturbed by the racism he witnessed in the American South.

[14][15] On his last day at the newspaper he wrote a front-page article about how strange it was that Americans took it upon themselves to fight oppression in the world while white Americans were “guilty of refusing to drink from the same fountain as the man who has fought on the same front for the same cause; guilty of refusing to travel on the same coach or seat as the man who has been working with equal ardor for a common community; guilty of refusing to pray to God side by side with the man who believes in the same prophet's teaching.”On a State Department fellowship, he returned to the US with a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship Scholarship in 1957, studying social psychology and Middle East history at Harvard University for eight months.

[19] He pressured his mentor İnönü to adopt a new party program known as Left of Center for the general elections that year, arguing that democratic socialism was the best way to combat communism.

He extended this Eurosceptic sentiment to his economic policy, not only establishing generous social programs and enabling a larger government role in the economy, but also raising protective tariffs to keep cheap foreign goods out of Turkey.

He was outflanked when the right-wing parties united to form the First Nationalist Front under Demirel's premiership, during which Turkish politics became heavily polarized and violent.

His third premiership was marked by a peak in political violence which manifested in Kahramanmaraş and Malatya against Alevis and CHP supporters and their subsequent reprisals against right wing activists.

His party failed to enter the Grand National Assembly for polling below 10% in the general elections held two months later, so Ecevit briefly resigned before returning as DSP leader in 1989.

Emphasizing the need to preserve national unity and secularism in the general elections held in 1991, he attacked SHP, saying "Do not divide the social democratic votes."

In coalition with parties to his right, some which were old foes such as MHP –Ecevit was also appointed PM by his old rival who was now president, Süleyman Demirel– he was criticized for adopting pro-business policies and abandoning his leftist values.

The government also amended 34 articles of the Constitution to widen fundamental rights and freedoms and undertook a number of reforms aimed at stabilizing the Turkish economy.

[1] His foreign minister İsmail Cem was instrumental in what is currently the latest step of Turkish–EU accession, when in the Helsinki Summit in December 1999, Turkey was recognized as a full candidate country for the European Union.

[11] A massive economic crisis which originated from long overdue problems from previous governments, but ultimately triggered by an incident where President Sezer threw a booklet of the Turkish constitution at Ecevit in a National Security Council meeting, specifically when he claimed economic reform was impossible, caused the value of the Lira to crash in February 2001.

Two months later, Ahmet Çakmak, a florist who was struggling from the economic crisis and inspired by Sezer's outburst, ran in front of news cameras and shouted "Mr. Prime Minister, I am a tradesman!"

These successful reforms allowed for Derviş to sign off on a $20 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, which enabled the high growth of 2002–2007 after DSP's fall from government.

Rumors about Bülent Ecevit's ill health were confirmed when he was taken to Başkent University Ankara Hospital on 4 May, 2002, which became a source of national anxiety.

[38] Allegations of corruption, the economic crisis, as well as Ecevit's poor health resulted in DSP facing electoral wipeout in the 2002 general election, attaining only 1.2% of the vote and losing all of its MPs.

[1] After attending the funeral of his friend Yücel Özbilgin, who was killed in the Turkish Council of State shooting on 19 May 2006, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, went into a coma and stayed in the intensive care unit of the Gülhane Military Medical Academy for a long time.

[40] Upon the death of Bülent Ecevit's wife Rahşan in January 2020, the parliament voted to also have civilians be buried in the State Cemetery, allowing her to be interred there too.

In 1997, the Journalists and Writers Foundation, of which Gülen was an honorary chairman of, presented Ecevit (and Demirel) with the "Award for National Reconciliation in the Field of Politics".

[47] While deputy prime minister, Ecevit requested the Italian Ambassador to greet Gülen when he went to Rome in 1998, which drew a reaction from general Çevik Bir.

[46] In the inaugural session of the 21st parliament elected in 1999, Merve Kavakçı entered the Grand National Assembly's chamber with a headscarf, which violated Turkey's then strictly enforced laicité laws.

Rasim's mother welcomed her guest at the door of their house, hugging Ecevit and exclaiming in a distinct Kars dialect, "Save us from these troubles, Garaoğlan!

Süleyman Demirel used the nickname "Allende-Büllende" to compare his rival, Ecevit, to the Chilean socialist statesman Salvador Allende, who was overthrown and committed suicide in a military coup.