Turkey's former president and prime minister Suleyman Demirel, a giant figure in the country's politics for over half a century, died Wednesday, the state Anatolia news agency said. He was 90.

Demirel served as prime minister several times in the 1960s and 1970s before serving as head of state from 1993-2000.

He died of heart failure resulting from a severe respiratory tract infection, Anatolia said, quoting the private Ankara hospital where he was treated.