Rahşan Ecevit

Who is Rahşan Ecevit?

Rahşan Ecevit is the spouse of the late Turkish politician and former prime minister Bülent Ecevit.

She was born in Bursa, Turkey to a family from Şebinkarahisar, a town in the northeastern Giresun Province. Her father was Namık Zeki Aral, and her mother Zahide Aral. Their family came from Thessaloniki after the population exchange agreement in 1920. Rahşan graduated from the American high school Robert College in İstanbul. She married her classmate Bülent Ecevit in 1946.

Following the military coup in 1980 led by General Kenan Evren, her husband was imprisoned and was suspended from active politics for life. Bülent Ecevit's party, the Republican People's Party, was closed down. On November 14, 1985, Rahşan founded a centre-left party, the Democratic Left Party and led it until her husband's ban from politics was lifted in 1987.

Rahşan Ecevit was the vice president of the Democratic Left Party and responsible for the party's organization between 1989 and 2004. She became the leader of the Demokratik Sol Halk Partisi on January 17, 2010. After Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu became the leader of the CHP she disbanded her party and joined the CHP.

On November 5, 2006, she lost her husband following an almost 6-month long medically induced coma.