voted him as the fourth president of Turkey. Journalist Parliamentarian Cihat Baban claims in his book, The Gallery of Politics (Politika Galerisi) that Cemal Gürsel told him "We may solve all troubles if Süleyman Demirel becomes the head of the Justice Party (Adalet Partisi). I am working very hard for him become the party leader. If I succeed in this, I will be happy.." Demirel was elected chairman at the second grand party convention on 28 November 1964. The President of the Republic of Turkey Cemal Gürsel assigned the mandate to form and serve as the Prime Minister of the new government to İsmet İnönü in November 1961, June 1962 and December 1963, to Senator Suat Hayri Ürgüplü in February 1965 and, following the general elections, to Suleyman Demirel of Justice Party in October 1965. With the reduction of tensions between the West and the Soviet bloc, Gürsel sought improved relations for his country's population of 27.8 million with the Soviet Union, such as the initiation of a telephone line agreement, as with the other members of the Western alliance while initiating new credit agreements with the US and the UK as well as bilateral technical and investment relations with Germany in 1960s. The atomic reactor in Istanbul became operational in 1962 along with his establishment of the first Research and State Library of the government in two years after his administration started. He promoted the grant of the freedom of and the legal rights to form unions and to go on strike in the country. Turkish Universities gained autonomous independence by law for the first time upon the legislation he passed. Cemal Gürsel granted a presidential pardon for the life sentences of the previous president Celal Bayar and the former chief of general staff Rustu Erdelhun whose prior execution sentence was also revoked by the National Unity Committee upon Gürsel's appeals. He initiated the new era of planned economy in Turkey, formed a State Institute of Statistics, launched the State Planning Organization (DPT) that implemented "The First 5-Years Development Plan", arranged re-entry of the Turkish Republic in the United Nations Security Council in 1961 and moved Turkey, through his close and personal diplomatic dialogues with Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, into the direction of European Union membership with the Ankara Agreement, signed with France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Luxembourg in 1963, resulting in associate membership the following