Cabinet Gül Cabinet Gül The cabinet of Abdullah Gül took office on November 19, 2002. He succeeded to the fifth government of Bülent Ecevit. After the Justice and Development Party (AKP) became the biggest party in the general elections of 2002, its leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could not be Prime Minister because of a previous conviction and bar from politics. So the second person in the party, Abdullah Gül, formed the 58th government of Turkey. After the legal and political problems for Erdoğan had been eliminated, Abdullah Gül stepped aside and became the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the next government while
Bülent Ecevit went to the United States in the mid–1950s on a State Department fellowship, and worked at two newspapers in North Carolina. Ecevit was elected into the Turkish parliament for the first time in 1957. He was a Member of the Parliament between 1960 and 1961 during the 26th, 27th and 28th governments. Ecevit served as the Minister of Labour between 1961 and 1965, contributing to the acceptance of the right to strike and collective agreement. In 1966 he became the secretary general of the Republican People's Party (, CHP). In 1971 he resigned from the post as a protest to