Erdal İnönü, Turkish physicist and politician, Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1926)
Erdal İnönü (6 June 1926 – 31 October 2007) was a Turkish theoretical physicist and politician, who served as the interim Prime Minister of Turkey between 16 May and 25 June 1993. He also served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey from 1991 to 1993 and as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from March to October 1995. He served as the leader of the Social Democracy Party (SODEP) from 1983 to 1985 and later the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) from 1986 to 1993. He was the son of the 2nd President of Turkey, İsmet İnönü.
İnönü initially founded the SODEP in 1983 with the intention of contesting the 1983 general election. However, the National Security Council that had been established following the 1980 military coup banned İnönü from standing for office. Standing down as chairman in order to be replaced by a politician that could seek office, İnönü was succeeded by Cezmi Kartay. However, SODEP was banned completely from contesting the election, resulting in İnönü taking over as leader for a second time shortly after. His party contested the 1984 local elections and came second with 23.4% of the vote. SODEP merged with the People's Party in 1985 and İnönü became the leader of the new Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) in 1986. In the 1986 parliamentary by-elections, the SHP came third with 22.7% of the vote and İnönü was elected as a Member of Parliament for İzmir. He was the only successful SHP candidate.
Following the 1991 general election, the SHP formed a coalition with Süleyman Demirel's True Path Party (DYP) and İnönü became Deputy Prime Minister. He briefly served as the acting Prime Minister in 1993 after Demirel was elected President. After the DYP elected Tansu Çiller as their leader and she formed a government, İnönü continued as Deputy Prime Minister until he resigned as party leader in 1993. He later served as Foreign Minister in 1995 until he stepped down as an MP in the 1995 general election.