17 Facts About Nihat Erim

Ismail Nihat Erim was a Turkish politician and jurist.

Nihat Erim served as the 13th Prime Minister of Turkey for almost 14 months after the 1971 Turkish military memorandum.

Nihat Erim returned to Turkey to become an assistant professor in 1939 and professor in 1942 at the Ankara University School of Law.

Nihat Erim was appointed as legal advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1943 while he was still in the university.

Nihat Erim served as an advisor in the Turkish committee at the conference on the foundation of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945.

Nihat Erim led the Turkish committee on the preparation of the Cyprus constitution in 1959, following Zurich and London Agreements.

Nihat Erim continued legally advising the Turkish committees at further negotiations on Cyprus at the United Nations.

Nihat Erim was one of the focal points of internal conflicts of CHP, opposing the leader Ismet Inonu.

Nihat Erim was re-elected to the party's ruling committee taking second highest votes, thus joining the party again.

Nihat Erim served as the Turkish representative at the Council of Europe between 1961 and 1970, and was elected as deputy secretary general in 1961.

Nihat Erim was appointed a neutral and technocratic prime minister on 26 March 1971 to form a "national unity" coalition government, the first of a series of weak governments until the elections in 1973.

Nihat Erim was forced to resign when 11 technocratic ministers of his cabinet resigned as a body on 3 December 1971.

Nihat Erim resigned on 17 April 1972 on health grounds, when his decision to promulgate decree laws was not backed by the parliament.

Nihat Erim's resignation was approved on 22 May 1972, and Ferit Melen, representative of the Van Province and minister of national defense in his cabinet, was appointed as the new prime minister and formed his own cabinet.

Nihat Erim appointed Talat Halman, journalist-writer, as the minister to this newly formed post.

Nihat Erim was shot to death by two gunmen near his home in Kartal, Istanbul on 19 July 1980.

Nihat Erim's assassination was part of the wave of political violence in Turkey in the late 1970s between left-wing Marxist and right-wing ultranationalist groups.