Turkey's former president Demirel buried in hometown

ISPARTA

Demirel was buried after a rose-scented ceremony.

Supporters, family members, politicians and statesmen bid farewell to Süleyman Demirel, Turkey's ninth president and one of the most prominent figures in the modern Republic’s political history, in his hometown of Isparta in southwestern Turkey on June 20 following a state ceremony in Ankara a day earlier. 

Demirel, who passed away in the young hours of June 17 was buried in İslamköy, the Isparta village where he was born, after funeral service in Şehriban Hatun Mosque.

His funeral coach and the cemetery was decorated with roses, a symbol of Isparta. 

His felt hat, his distinctive accessory that he carried all his life long, was left at his grave.

Soil from many provinces across Turkey was also left on his grave as water from some dams that he had had built was also poured on it. 

Turkey's Parliament Speaker Cemil Çicek, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu, Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli and other politicians and former government officials, as well as Demirel's family, relatives and a large number of people attended the funeral.

Many attendees to the ceremony first visited Süleyman Demirel Democracy and Development Museum in Isparta, where a wax sculpture of Demirel is also being displayed. 

Demirel was one of Turkey's most prominent center-right political figures. He also served as a seven-time prime minister who survived two military coup eras. 

He was the country's president from 1993 to 2000.

With just over a decade in office as premier, he was Turkey's third-longest serving prime minister after Turkey's first ever prime minister, İsmet İnönü and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

There are numerous high schools across the country, a university, and an airport in Isparta province named after Demirel.