Celal Bayar

Mahmut Celalettin Bayar (May 16, 1883 – August 22, 1986) was a Turkish politician, statesman and the third President of Turkey. He is the longest lived former head of state, living over 103 years. He was born in 1883 at Umurbey, a village of Gemlik, Bursa as the son of a religious leader and teacher who migrated from Lom, Bulgaria. After the school, he worked as a clerk first in the court in Gemlik and then in Ziraat Bankası and later in the Deut... more

Mahmut Celalettin Bayar (May 16, 1883 – August 22, 1986) was a Turkish politician, statesman and the third President of Turkey. He is the longest lived former head of state, living over 103 years. He was born in 1883 at Umurbey, a village of Gemlik, Bursa as the son of a religious leader and teacher who migrated from Lom, Bulgaria. After the school, he worked as a clerk first in the court in Gemlik and then in Ziraat Bankası and later in the Deutsche Orientbank in Bursa. In 1908, he joined the volunteer’s troop of "İttihad Terakki Cemiyeti" (Committee of Union and Progress), a political organization of Young Turks. He served as the secretary-general of the newly founded Bursa branch and later of the İzmir branch of this party. At the same time Celâl Bayar was member of the Special Organisatzion (Teşkilât-ı Mahsûsa). He contributed to the foundation of a girls' college and a railway school. In 1914 he participated in the planning and organisation of the ethnic cleansing of Greeks in... less