Rahşan Ecevit Rahşan Ecevit Rahşan Ecevit ("née" Aral; born 1923) is the widow of Turkish politician and former Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit. She was born in Bursa, Turkey to a family from Şebinkarahisar, a town in the north-eastern 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
Bülent Ecevit bringing about an economic recovery, spearheaded by the new Minister of Economic Affairs Kemal Derviş. Nevertheless, almost half of DSP group in the parliament issued from DSP to form İsmail Cem İpekçi's New Turkey Party (YTP). On the other hand, allegations of corruption, the economic crisis, as well as Ecevit's poor health made early elections unavoidable and the DSP faced an electoral wipeout in the 2002 general election, losing all of its MPs. Ecevit resigned as DSP leader in 2004. Bülent Ecevit was not only a politician but also a poet and a writer. He translated works by Rabindranath Tagore,