Turkish ex-premier suffers brain hemorrhage
Güncelleme Tarihi:
AFP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 19, 2006 12:35
Veteran politician Bulent Ecevit, a five-time prime minister of Turkey, is in serious condition in an induced coma after suffering a brain hemorrhage Thursday night, his doctors said Friday.The center-left politician who, with arch-rival Suleyman Demirel, a conservative, dominated Turkish politics for nearly four decades, is six days shy of his 81st birthday.
"Mr. Ecevits vital functions are stable, but his condition remains serious," said a communique by the GATA military hospital in Ankara.
Doctors said the former Chairman of the Republican Peoples Party was operated on for six hours, had blood drained from the left lobe of his brain and was put into an artificial coma.
Ecevit felt unwell after returning home Thursday night from the funeral of slain Council of State judge Mustafa Ycel zbilgin, killed Wednesday by a Muslim fundamentalist gunman in an attack on the countrys top administrative court, NTV television reported.
He was unable to speak when he was hospitalized at around 9:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) Thursday night, the doctors said.
Political leaders queued up at the hospital to visit the one-time leader of the moderate Turkish left, who retired three and a half years ago, leaving behind a reputation of unblemished honesty in Turkeys corruption-riddled political milieu.
Zeki Sezer, chairman of the small Democratic Left Party (DSP) of which Ecevit was honorary chairman since his retirement, told reporters outside the hospital that "we are more hopeful now," than when Ecevit was brought in.
Ecevits wife, Rahsan, herself a formidable political figure, was at his side, media reports said. Ecevit was prime minister during the 1974 invasion of Cyprus, and again in 1999, when Turkeys most wanted man, Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, was arrested in Kenya and brought back to Turkey for trial.
He retired from politics when he lost the Prime Ministry and his DSP party was swept away without winning a single seat in the November 2002 elections that brought the current, Islamist-rooted, Justice and Development Party government to power.
A small, sprightly man with a dark mustache, sporting metal rimmed glasses and a Greek sailors cap, Ecevit, who started his career as a journalist, is also a well-known poet and a translator of T.S. Eliot and Bengali poet Rabinbdranath Tagore.
He is married with no children.
Doctors said the former Chairman of the Republican Peoples Party was operated on for six hours, had blood drained from the left lobe of his brain and was put into an artificial coma.
Ecevit felt unwell after returning home Thursday night from the funeral of slain Council of State judge Mustafa Ycel zbilgin, killed Wednesday by a Muslim fundamentalist gunman in an attack on the countrys top administrative court, NTV television reported.
He was unable to speak when he was hospitalized at around 9:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) Thursday night, the doctors said.
Political leaders queued up at the hospital to visit the one-time leader of the moderate Turkish left, who retired three and a half years ago, leaving behind a reputation of unblemished honesty in Turkeys corruption-riddled political milieu.
Zeki Sezer, chairman of the small Democratic Left Party (DSP) of which Ecevit was honorary chairman since his retirement, told reporters outside the hospital that "we are more hopeful now," than when Ecevit was brought in.
Ecevits wife, Rahsan, herself a formidable political figure, was at his side, media reports said. Ecevit was prime minister during the 1974 invasion of Cyprus, and again in 1999, when Turkeys most wanted man, Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, was arrested in Kenya and brought back to Turkey for trial.
He retired from politics when he lost the Prime Ministry and his DSP party was swept away without winning a single seat in the November 2002 elections that brought the current, Islamist-rooted, Justice and Development Party government to power.
A small, sprightly man with a dark mustache, sporting metal rimmed glasses and a Greek sailors cap, Ecevit, who started his career as a journalist, is also a well-known poet and a translator of T.S. Eliot and Bengali poet Rabinbdranath Tagore.
He is married with no children.