Having been identified as a potential future prime minister by Adnan Menderes, Demirel was elected leader of the Justice Party in 1964 and managed to bring down the government of İsmet İnönü in 1965 despite not being a Member of Parliament.

He won the 1991 general election and formed a coalition with the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), assuming his fifth and final term as prime minister.

With 10 years and 5 months, his tenure as premier is the third longest in Turkish history, after İsmet İnönü and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

After graduating from the school of civil engineering at the Istanbul Technical University in 1949,[3] Süleyman Demirel worked in the State Department for electrical power planning.

Journalist and MP Cihat Baban claims in The Gallery of Politics (Politika Galerisi), that President Cemal Gürsel told him: We may solve all troubles if Süleyman Demirel can become the head of the Justice Party (Adalet Partisi).

[7] On 22 March 1963, the imprisoned former president Celal Bayar was released on parole, causing protests in front of Justice Party headquarters.

He facilitated the formation of a caretaker government that ruled between February and October 1965 under the premiership of Suat Hayri Ürgüplü in which he served as Deputy Prime Minister.

Shortly after coming to power he faced was the "Presidential crisis" when Cemal Gürsel, who assumed the presidency after the adoption of the 1961 Constitution, stated that his poor health prevented him from continuing his duty.

Demirel presided over the laying the foundations of the Keban Dam, the Bosphorus Bridge and an oil pipeline between Batman and İskenderun.

Pressure was also mounting from the United States, as the Nixon Administration wished for Turkey to ban the cultivation of opium, which would have been politically costly for Demirel to implement.

Demirel also had trouble brewing inside his own party, as while he attempted to issue an amnesty to ex-Democrats, he was effectively vetoed by the armed forces.

A worsening economy, the 15–16 June events, one of the biggest workers' protests in the history of Turkey; disagreements between the government and military over the Cyprus dispute, escalations of tensions with Greece, and conflict between leftists and rightists served to define the last years of Demirel's first premiership as politically unstable.

In the spring of 1973, with the presidential election on the agenda, to counter the army's influence over national politics, he reached an agreement with the new leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Bülent Ecevit, to support Fahri Korutürk as president instead of former chief of staff of Turkish Military Faruk Gürler.

In order for the coalition to survive, Islamist MSP supporters and ultranationalist MHP members were recruited within state institutions, intensifying the renewed political violence of the 1970s; 42 people were killed in a 1977 May Day rally at Taksim Square.

The country entered an economic depression caused by a rise in global petrol prices, deficit in foreign payments and rapid inflation.

The troubles brought by American embargo, inflation, and escalating political violence meant Ecevit lost the 1979 by-elections, prompting his resignation.

His last premiership before the 1980 coup saw the implementation of the 24 January decisions which proved to be a turning point in Turkey's transition to a neoliberal economy.

As Fahri Korutürk's presidential term was ending, a crisis brewed as to who would succeed him, with Demirel and Ecevit failing 115 times to elect a new president.

After political parties were allowed to be established in May 1983, Demirel declared, "I do not build shanty houses on my land with a title deed."

Demirel, along with former CHP and Justice Party members was forced to stay for four months in Zincirbozan, Çanakkale, on the grounds that he violated the political ban.

Demirel acknowledged the distinction of Kurds being a different ethnicity from Turks,[15] reformed criminal procedure law, removed the ban on all party names and abbreviations accumulated from military coups, and ratified international conventions on trade union freedoms.

[17] While the government had success combating far-left terrorist groups, the assassinations of journalist Uğur Mumcu and Gendarme commander Eşref Bitlis shocked the country.

Though both coalition partners advocated for ending the OHAL zone and the village guard system in southeast Anatolia, Operation Provide Comfort meant the policies had to continue in the unstable region.

Resigning his party chairmanship, his successor for leadership of DYP became Turkey's first female prime minister, Tansu Çiller.

Demirel gave Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev advanced notice of an upcoming coup attempt against his government backed by various factions of the Turkish army and intelligence services.

Demirel's role in the 1997 "Postmodern Coup" is controversial, with some accusing him of leading the effort to bring down Necmittin Erbakan's REFAHYOL government[18] while others claimed that he prevented a complete military takeover by easing the tension.

[19] In 1997, Demirel participated in a conference organized by the Journalists and Writers Foundation, of which Fethullah Gülen was its honorary chairman, and received the "Statesman National Reconciliation Award" from him.

[citation needed] Demirel was a member of the committee that drafted the Mitchell Report in 2001, which investigated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the midst of the Second Intifada and offered recommendations to reduce tensions.

Although Demirel had retired, whenever there was political distress, Turkish media or his followers (humorously or otherwise) called on him with the words "Kurtar bizi baba" ("Father, save us").

[28] When speaking to a reporter when tensions were heightened with Greece due to the Aegean dispute he said: "Ege bir Yunan gölü değildir.