Ahmet Mesut Yılmaz is a Turkish politician. He was the leader of the Motherland Party from 1991 to 2002, and served three times as Prime Minister of Turkey. His first two prime-ministerial terms lasted just months, while the third ran from June 1997 to January 1999. The first was brought to an end by defeat in the 1991 elections, the latter two by the breakdown of Yılmaz' coalition governments.
Personal life
He is married to Berna Yilmaz. The couple became parents to two sons, Hasan Yilmaz and Yavuz Yilmaz. Yavuz Yilmaz was found shot dead in his apartment in Istanbul in December 2017.
In June 1991 Yılmaz managed to discharge Yıldırım Akbulut from the party leadership and from all executive functions during the party congress. Because ANAP had the majority in the parliament he subsequently became Prime Minister of Turkey in the 48th government of Turkey. However, in October ANAP came in second in the 1991 general election to Süleyman Demirel's True Path Party, and the DYP formed a coalition with the Social Democratic Populist Party. The following years saw a decline in the popularity of the Motherland Party and an acrimonious relationship with Tansu Çiller, leader of the center-right True Path Party. Yılmaz also made the Motherland Party more business-friendly and Europe-oriented, causing the more conservative, religious wing to switch to the Welfare Party of Necmettin Erbakan. In the December 1995 general election ANAP again came second, this time to the Welfare Party. After lengthy coalition negotiations Yılmaz formed a coalition with the DYP in March 1996, but this lasted less than four months, falling to a censure motion led by the Welfare Party. President Demirel invited Erbakan to form a government, which he did, in coalition with the DYP. Erbakan's term was marked by the Susurluk scandal, during the investigation of which Yılmaz admitted the existence of the JİTEM counter-terrorist Gendarmerie unit. The scandal led to the resignation of Erbakan's Interior Minister, Mehmet Ağar, following revelations that Abdullah Çatlı, leader of the far-right Grey Wolves organisation, worked for the state. Yılmaz' concerns over his own safety, owing to his support of the Susurluk investigation, led to his briefly carrying a gun in self-defense. Yılmaz formed a government for the third time in June 1997, after the Welfare Party had resigned from government following the February 1997 military memorandum. DYP and others expected to form a government under Tansu Çiller, but President Süleyman Demirel asked Yılmaz to form the new government. Yılmaz created an ANAP-Democratic Left Party-Democrat Turkey Party coalition which lasted until January 1999. Yılmaz final term was marked by fallout from the investigations into the Susurluk scandal, and further revelations of connections between politicians, police and mafia. When the attempt to privatize the Türk Ticaret Bankası to Korkmaz Yiğit blew up in October 1998 over allegations of the involvement of mafia bossAlaattin Çakıcı, Yılmaz' coalition did not last much longer. In October 1998, Yılmaz set off a furor in the Arab world by threatening to "poke out the eyes" of Syria over Hafez al-Assad's alleged support of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party.
Later career
Yılmaz continued as a politician, however, serving as a deputy prime minister in a coalition led by Bülent Ecevit from 1999 to 2002. After his failure to win entry into the Grand National Assembly in 2002 elections, Yılmaz retired from politics to pursue a teaching career. He was charged by the state public prosecutor with corruption during his tenure as prime minister relating to the privatization of Turkish Trade Bank. In 2006 the Supreme Court suspended the case for five years, so that the charges would be dropped if no similar charges arose in that period. Yılmaz announced that he would return to politics. In the 2007 general election he was elected as independent member of parliament from Rize.
Chronology
Forms Motherland Party in 1983 with former president Turgut Özal
