Tansu Ciller | Turkish prime minister and economist | Britannica.com Turkish prime minister and economist Written By: Turkish prime minister and economist born Tansu Çiller, (born 1946, Istanbul, Turkey), Turkish economist and politician, who was Turkey ’s first female prime minister (1993–96). Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller (left) and the prime minister-designate, Mesut Yilmaz, 1996. Burhan Ozbilici—AP/Wide World Çiller was born to an affluent family in Istanbul . After graduating from the University of the Bosporus with a degree in economics , she continued her studies in the United States , where she earned graduate degrees from the Universities of New Hampshire and Connecticut and attended Yale University . Çiller returned to Turkey to teach and, at age 36, became the nation’s youngest full professor. Together with her husband, she amassed some $60 million through real estate speculation. Çiller joined the ruling True Path Party (Doğru Yol Partisi; DYP) in 1990.

The following year she was elected to parliament and was named economics minister in Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel ’s coalition government. Although she advocated greater privatization of state-owned firms and a balanced budget, it was during her tenure as economics minister that government debt soared and the country suffered a downgrading of its international credit rating. Despite these woes, Çiller was selected to replace Demirel as prime minister in 1993. As she assumed power, Çiller faced increased Kurdish unrest in southeastern Turkey and the pressing need to reduce government spending. In the December 1995 general election, Necmettin Erbakan led the Welfare (Refah) Party, an Islamist party, to victory. When forming a coalition proved difficult for Erbakan, however, Çiller’s DYP and the Motherland (Anavatan) Party agreed to cooperate in an attempt to block the Islamists from power. Çiller and her rival, Motherland leader Mesut Yılmaz, agreed to rotate the premiership, with Yılmaz serving first. The coalition soon fell apart, however, and Erbakan was given another opportunity.

This time it was the Welfare Party and Çiller’s DYP that agreed to a partnership in which Çiller and Erbakan would alternate as prime minister. Although the Turkish national legislature confirmed the unlikely coalition, fears that the Welfare Party was attempting to Islamicize the country soon led the military to force Erbakan to resign, and it was Yılmaz, not Çiller, who was chosen to form a new coalition. Çiller was reelected as the DYP’s leader in 1999, but, after the party fared poorly in the 2002 elections, she stepped down. Learn More in these related articles: Tansu Ãiller (Politician) - Pics, Videos, Dating, & News Tansu Ãiller Female Born May 24, 1946 Tansu Penbe Ãiller is a Turkish economist and politician. She was Turkey's first and only female Prime Minister. related links Angela's Angels And The Political Patriarchy Huffington Post - Sep 27, 2013 'Angela Merkel has again become the most powerful woman in the world.

Surveying the global map of female heads of government highlights some surprising realities about emancipation and the patriarchy. \nAngela Merkel has made it to a third term in office. Not being a fan of her conservative austerity politics and feeling that Germany, not to mention the EU as a whole, needs an injection of progressive radicalism, I had half-wished that the protest Pirate Party would, against the odds, force ... Ä°srail'in Bedel Ã¶demesinin Vakti Geldi Milliyet Google News - Sep 03, 2011 '1994 KasÄ±m TÃ¼rkiye BaÅbakanÄ± <mark>Tansu Ãiller</mark>, Ä°srail&#39;e resmi ziyaret dÃ¼zenleyen ilk lider oldu. 1994 yÄ±lÄ±nda iki Ã¼lke arasÄ±ndaki ticaret hacmi yaklaÅÄ±k 300 milyon dolar idi.

1998 TÃ¼rkiye, Ä°srail&#39;deki askeri ataÅe sayÄ±sÄ±nÄ± birden Ã¼Ã§e Ã§Ä±kardÄ±' A Holiday Romance Can Become The Sweetest Thing Belfast Telegraph Google News - Aug 29, 2011 'In 1993 Tansu Ciller became the first female PM. Politeness remains important in the country and swearing is a no no.

Turks working in the tourist industry know how we curse and as Regan Smyth notes: âA well educated waiter friend of mine said people' Ãiller Ve ErdoÄan'Ä±n Benzerlikleri AyÄ±rÄ±mlarÄ± Ajansa NÃ»Ã§eyan A FiratÃª Google News - Aug 21, 2011 'Tayyip ErdoÄan ile <mark>Tansu Ãiller</mark>&#39;in KÃ¼rt sorununu algÄ±lamalarÄ± ve yarattÄ±ÄÄ± konseptlerin benzerliÄi tartÄ±ÅmalarÄ± yÃ¼rÃ¼tÃ¼lÃ¼yor. AKP&#39;nin gazetelerinde ve televizyonlarÄ±nda bÃ¶ylesi bir benzerlik yok deniyor. âTÃ¼rkiye eski TÃ¼rkiye deÄil.

Yeni TÃ¼rkiye&#39;dir' Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Tansu Ãiller. CHILDHOOD 1946 Birth Born on May 24, 1946. FORTIES As a Professor of Economics, Ãiller was appointed as Minister of State with responsibility for the economy by Prime Minister SÃ¼leyman Demirel in 1991. … Ãiller was born at Istanbul; her father was first a journalist, then a Turkish governor of Bilecik Province during the 1950s. Tansu was the only child and she graduated from the School of Economics at Robert College after finishing the American College for Girls in Istanbul. She received her M.S. from the University of New Hampshire and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. She later completed her postdoctoral studies at Yale University. <br /><br />Ãiller taught economics at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1978, she became a lecturer at BoÄaziÃ§i University in Istanbul and in 1983 she was appointed as professor by the same institution.

She also worked in the now-defunct Istanbul Bank as president of the company. <br /><br />Ãiller entered politics in November 1990, joining the conservative True Path Party (DYP) as economic advisor to former Prime Minister SÃ¼leyman Demirel. Read Less She was elected to the parliament in 1991 as deputy representing Istanbul. … Read More The DYP became the largest party (with 27 per cent of the seats) and Demirel formed a coalition government (49th government of Turkey). Tansu Ãiller was appointed economics minister. She was elected to the executive board of DYP and acquired the position as deputy chair. Read Less Show Less When Demirel was elected as President in 1993, Ãiller was elected leader of the True Path Party and succeeded Demirel as Prime Minister. … Read More Her premiership preceded over the intensifying armed conflict between the Turkish Armed Forces and the Kurdish separatist PKK, resulting in Ãiller enacting numerous reforms to national defence and implementing the Castle Plan.

With a better equipped military, Ãiller's government was able to persuade the United States to register the PKK as a terrorist organisation. Read Less After the death in office of President Turgut Ãzal (which according to some was part of the 1993 alleged Turkish military coup), DYP Prime Minister SÃ¼leyman Demirel won the 1993 presidential election on 16 May 1993. … Read More Suddenly the important position as Prime Minister and leader of the DYP was vacant. The party found itself in an identity crisis. Ciller was no obvious candidate, but the three male contenders could not muster the resources, skill and support to compete effectively. Ciller was a professional urban woman, young and smart with a Western higher education. The media supported her, as well as the business community, and externally she gave the impression that Turkey was a progressive Muslim country. On 13 June 47-year-old Ãiller fell 11 votes shy of a majority in the first ballot for party leader.

Her opponents withdrew and she became the party's leader and on 25 June, the Prime Minister of the DYP-Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) coalition government (50th government of Turkey). Read Less Following the death of Ãzal, the Castle Plan to attack the PKK (previously approved by the National Security Council) was put into effect (although elements of the strategy preceded the official Plan). Ãiller declared on 4 October 1993: "We know the list of businessmen and artists subjected to racketeering by the PKK and we shall be bringing their members to account." Beginning on 14 January 1994, almost a hundred people were kidnapped by commandos wearing uniforms and travelling in police vehicles and then killed somewhere along the road from Ankara to Istanbul. … Read More Abdullah Catli, a leader of the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves and an organized crime figure, demanded money from people who were on "Ãillerâs list", promising to get their names removed.

One of his victims, BehÃ§et CantÃ¼rk, was to pay ten million dollars, to which Casino King Ãmer LÃ¼tfÃ¼ Topal added a further seventeen million. However, after receiving the money, he then went on to have them kidnapped and killed, and sometimes tortured beforehand. Read Less 1994 48 Years Old Shortly after winning the 1994 local elections, large-scale capital flight due to the lack of confidence in Ãiller's budget deficit targets led to the Turkish Lira and foreign currency reserves almost collapsing. Show Less Amid the subsequent economic crisis and austerity measures, her government signed the EU-Turkey Customs Union in 1995. Her government was alleged to have supported the 1995 Azeri coup d'Ã©tat attempt and presided over an escalation of tensions with Greece after claiming sovereignty over the Imia/Kardak islets. Although the DYP came third in the 1995 general election, she remained as Prime Minister until Necmettin Erbakan formed a government in 1996 with Ãiller becoming Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Ãiller continued Demirel's coalition government, but replaced most of the ministers from her own party. She was the only woman until 1995, when a woman state minister for women and family affairs was appointed. … Read More Ciller did not continue Demirel's policies. As Prime Minister she promoted a conservative populism and economic liberalism. She juggled "masculine" and "feminine" styles, boasting of her "toughness" at the same time as she wanted to be the nation's mother and sister. She became a new role model for a woman politician with clout who did not deny her femininity, and she had success, but also created confusion, distrust and disgust. She ruled authoritatively, taking control of the party organization, pursued established male politicies and was uninterested in women's issues. Read Less The EU-Turkey Customs Union agreement was signed in 1995 and came into effect in 1996 during Ãiller's government.

In March 1995 the 1995 Azeri coup d'Ã©tat attempt took place; official reports following the 1996 Susurluk scandal suggested Ãiller and others in the government had supported the coup attempt, which aimed to reinstall Ebulfeyz ElÃ§ibey as president. After the withdrawal of the Republican People's Party (CHP) from the coalition in October 1995 (the SHP had split, merged, and renamed itself) Ãiller attempted to form a minority government, which failed in less than a month (51st government of Turkey). After that she agreed to form another cabinet (52nd government of Turkey) with the CHP and went for general elections, which took place in December 1995. FIFTIES Show Less … Tansu Ãiller (born 24 May 1946) is a Turkish academician, economist, and politician who served as the 30th Prime Minister of Turkey from 1993 to 1996. She is Turkey's first and only female prime minister to date.

Read Less As the leader of the True Path Party, she went on to concurrently serve as Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey and as Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1996 and 1997. The Susurluk car crash in 1996 and the subsequent Susurluk scandal revealed the relations between extra-legal organisations and Ãiller's government. … Read More Revelations that Ãiller had employed individuals such as Abdullah ÃatlÄ± led to a decline of popularity. Erbakan's government fell following a military memorandum in 1997 and the DYP declined further in the 1999 general election. Read Less Ãiller was still prime minister during the January 1996 Imia/Kardak crisis with neighbouring Greece. … Read More One of Ãiller's major achievements was to transform the Turkish Army from an organization using vintage equipment from the US Army into a modern fighting force capable of defeating the PKK, using hit-and-run tactics. She also convinced the U.S. government to list the PKK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, which was later followed by the acceptance of the same by the European Union.

Read Less With the creation of the Motherland Party-DYP coalition in March 1996 under Mesut YÄ±lmaz (53rd government of Turkey), Ãiller became Minister of Foreign Affairs and deputy Prime Minister. After the coalition collapsed in June 1996, the DYP joined a new coalition with the Welfare Party, under Necmettin Erbakan, with Ãiller retaining her positions. … Read More This was the beginning of DYP's and Ãiller's decline. Ãiller lost credibility as a political leader because she joined forces with those she criticized the most.<br /><br /> After the November 1996 Susurluk car crash, which prompted the Susurluk scandal, she praised Abdullah ÃatlÄ±, who died in the crash, saying: "Those who fire bullets or suffer their wounds in the name of this country, this nation, and this state will always be respectfully remembered by us."<br /><br /> As deputy Prime Minister, Ãiller declared that if Greece tried to divide Albania, it would have the Turkish Army in Athens 24 hours later.

Read Less Coalition negotiations were protracted, and Ãiller remained in office at the head of the DYP-CHP coalition until March 1996, when the DYP formed a coalition with the Motherland Party, with Mesut YÄ±lmaz becoming Prime Minister. 1997 51 Years Old Erbakan's Welfare Party resigned from government following the February 1997 military memorandum. … Read More DYP and others expected to form a government under Ãiller, but President SÃ¼leyman Demirel asked ANAP leader Mesut YÄ±lmaz to form the new government instead. Ãiller's manoeuvres, political excuses, failed policies and scandals made her increasingly unpopular. 35 women's organizations took her to court because she lacked principles. She was also criticized for undermining democracy <br /><br /> Tansu Ãiller was investigated by the Turkish Parliament on serious corruption charges following her period in government. Along with another former Prime Minister, Mesut YÄ±lmaz, she was later cleared of all the charges mainly due to technicalities such as the statute of limitations and parliamentary immunity.

Read Less 1998 52 Years Old At the end of 1998, the corruption files about YÄ±lmaz and Ãiller were covered up at the commissions of the Parliament in a common action staged by DYP, ANAP and DSP MPs. Ciller to Form New Turkish Government - latimes Ciller to Form New Turkish Government June 15, 1993 | From Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey — President Suleyman De mirel on Monday asked economist Tansu Ciller to form a new government, putting her in line to become Turkey's first woman prime minister. Ciller, 47, the former state minister in charge of the economy, was elected Sunday as leader of the True Path Party, the senior partner in the governing center-right coalition, assuring her nomination as prime minister-designate. She will succeed Demirel, a seven-time premier who was elected to the largely ceremonial presidency last month after the death of Turgut Ozal. Ciller will be the third woman to head a predominantly Muslim country. The first two were former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Khaleda Zia, the prime minister of Bangladesh.

Ciller won the party leadership with the support of the rank and file, who longed for change and rejuvenation. In doing so, she humiliated the conservative Establishment, including Demirel, who was widely reported to have backed his interior minister, Ismet Sezgin, against Ciller, despite assurances of neutrality. Ciller, who received her master's degree from the University of Connecticut and studied at Yale University, has promised to speed up economic reforms and strengthen ties with the European Community. She has said her ties with the president would be "constitutional," indicating she wouldn't allow Demirel to cast a shadow on her authority. Ciller said she will soon open talks with the government-partner Social Democratic Populist Party for a renewed coalition alignment. Erdal Inonu, the senior Social Democratic leader, will continue to hold the post of acting prime minister until Ciller gets a parliamentary vote of confidence for her new government. No date has been set for the vote. "It is going to be a new government, even if it is going to be between the same partners," Ciller told a news conference after her nomination, hinting at a shake-up.

The True Path has 182 deputies in the 450-member Parliament and the Social Democrats have 54, giving the coalition a not-too-solid majority. Although she has pledged to speed up economic reforms, Ciller has been at odds with key economic bureaucrats. She also has to cope with chronic inflation, running at 65% annually. MORE: Profile : Turkey's First Female Prime Minister Is No Wallflower : Self-confident and reformist, she symbolizes her country's switch to youth and dynamism. - latimes Profile : Turkey's First Female Prime Minister Is No Wallflower : Self-confident and reformist, she symbolizes her country's switch to youth and dynamism. June 22, 1993 |HUGH POPE | SPECIAL TO THE TIMES ISTANBUL, Turkey — Tansu Ciller, soon to become the first woman prime minister of Turkey, has never harbored much doubt as to her abilities. And that's the way the 60 million people of this male-dominated, Muslim country like to have their leaders.

"I have never lost any major battle I have entered," she boldly declared to viewers of her first live television debate--a belief that must have been reinforced by her surprise showing nine days ago when she won the leadership of Turkey's ruling conservative True Path Party. For Ciller, born into an ordinary upper-middle-class Istanbul family, it was ever thus. As a teen-age bride she persuaded her husband to take her surname, not his--virtually unprecedented in this traditional country. At the age of 36, she was appointed Turkey's youngest professor at its most prestigious university. And unlike other Muslim women leaders like Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto or Bangladesh's Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, her rise to power in just three years of full-time politics owes nothing to any famous male relation. In a main reception room of her house in the Turkish capital, Ankara, the 47-year-old, U.S.-educated Ciller has even hung a magazine cover featuring a caricature of herself in armor over a caption describing her as Turkey's Joan of Arc.

Her compatriots are rejoicing that at last they have a leader who seems to symbolize Turkey's youthful dynamism, sweeping aside the dull old men in business suits who had appeared ready to dominate the country after the decline and death in April of reformist President Turgut Ozal. "The World Is Now Talking Turkey," boasted one headline here as Ciller set about forming her first Cabinet. Others proclaimed, "It's a Festival for Tansu" and "Ours Is the Prettiest." The Istanbul stock market soared a record 10% in a single day's trading in the wake of Ciller's triumph. Everywhere, Turks are talking about a spirit of political change--a hand-over of power in all the major parties to a new generation of leaders, acceptance of the need to overhaul the state-dominated economy, a shift from rural to urban priorities and a recognition of women's advances in Turkish society.

There is even a subtle shift in power from the strait-laced Ankara, Turkey's capital since the declaration of the republic in 1923, to Ciller's home base of Istanbul--a dynamic metropolis of 10 million, the country's financial center and a re-emerging regional hub that was once capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. "It's almost too much. Shouldn't we be worried that change for change's sake will risk giving us the same exaggerated expectations that are now haunting the Clinton Administration in America?" asked Ahmet Tan, a Turkish commentator and broadcaster. In fact, Turks don't know quite what to expect from their prime minister-designate. In theory, she stands for an ideology of what she called "nationalist reformism." She favors faster privatization of the state sector--an urgent priority if she is to stanch a hemorrhaging national budget that is pushing Turkey's 65% annual inflation rate even higher. Her track record as minister of state in charge of the economy during the past 20 months is less than stellar. In part, she has been hamstrung by a coalition with the Social Democratic Populist Party--an arrangement she may have to continue.

One option may be for her to announce an early general election, expecting in view of her sudden surge of popularity to take more than the 28% of the vote won by the True Path Party in 1991. Domestic politics is not her only problem, however. Her headstrong and sometimes arrogant style has alienated top Turkish bureaucrats. She also has a hard-line approach to the Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey. Heavy bloodshed there is likely to continue as usual if, as expected, she simply delegates responsibility to the army. Turkey's checkered human rights record is unlikely to change much, although some junior Turkish officials believe that the emergence of a woman leader will somehow translate into a message of change to the remaining torturers in police stations. Diplomats say Ciller is impatient with any issue not at the top of her agenda and that she lacks interest and experience in diplomatic affairs. "She knows nothing about foreign policy," said one European envoy. Nevertheless, she has a knack for making high-level friendships, receiving personal invitations to Paris from French President Francois Mitterrand and to London from Baroness Margaret Thatcher.

(Not surprisingly, the Turkish press has already dubbed Ciller Turkey's version of Britain's Iron Lady.) Ciller evidences a pronounced streak of populism reminiscent of her 68-year-old political mentor, President Suleyman Demirel, who is popularly known here as "Baba," or "Father." Her supporters have hung banners announcing: "Baba Has Gone, Mother Has Come." Çiller, Tansu Encyclopedia > History > Biographies > Turkish and Ottoman History: Biographies Tansu Çiller Çiller, Tansu (tänˈsō chēlĕrˈ) [ key ], 1946–, Turkish politician, first woman prime minister of Turkey (1993–96). She studied at the Univ. of the Bosporus, &Idot;stanbul (B.A.), Univ. of Connecticut (Ph.D.), and Yale, and was an economics professor during the late 1970s and 80s. Joining the ruling center-right True Path party (DYP) in 1990, she was elected to parliament in 1991.

That year the generally liberal and pro-Western Çiller also became economics minister in Süleyman Demirel 's cabinet. In 1993 she was elected party leader and named prime minister. Although she instituted various austerity measures, the faltering Turkish economy continued to decline during her tenure, and the nation was plagued by violence from separatist Kurds in SE Turkey. After the DYP lost its majority (1995), she stayed on as caretaker prime minister until 1996, and was deputy prime minister and foreign minister from 1996 to 1997. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. Tansu Çiller | Wikigender Tansu Çiller Wikis > Tansu Çiller Tansu Penbe Çiller (born October 9, 1946) is an economist and politician in Turkey . Between 1993 and 1996, she served as Turkey’s first female Prime Minister, and was the third female head of state in a predominantly Muslim country.

Table of Contents 5 Sources Early Life and Education She graduated from the School of Economics at Robert College after finishing the American College for Girls in Istanbul. She received her M.S. from the University of New Hampshire and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. She completed later on her postdoctoral studies at Yale University. In 1978, she became a lecturer at Bosphorus University in Istanbul and in 1983 she was appointed as professor by the same institution. She also worked in the now-defunct Istanbul Bank as president of the company. Political Career After teaching at several universities as a professor, she entered politics in November 1990, joining the conservative True Path Party (DYP). She was first elected to parliament in 1991 as deputy of Istanbul and served as Minister of State in charge of economics in the coalition government of Süleyman Demirel. On June 13, 1993, she became the party’s leader and later the Prime Minister of a coalition government. After the withdrawal of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) from the coalition in 1995 she attempted to form a minority government, which failed.

Çiller also served as Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Minister and the vice prime minister between 1996 and 1997. In 1997, before she could form her forth cabinet as the prime minister, she was removed from power with a post-modern military coup. Europe The EU-Turkey Customs Union agreement was signed in 1995 and came into effect in 1996, during Çiller’s government. Çiller was also Turkey’s PM during the Imia/Kardak crisis with neighbouring Greece in 1996. She is pro-European and her election as Prime Minister was heralded by the media and political commentators as a sign of Turkey’s credentials for European Union membership. She is credited with modernising the Turkish Army and for playing an important role in the US and the European Union recognising the PKK as a terrorist organization. She was investigated for serious corruption allegations after her time in power but was later cleared, mainly due to technicalities. She lost power in 2002 and retired from political life.

Tansu Çiller is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders , an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development. Reputation Turkish media called her a “lady with a smile of steel” in reference to her strong will. One example often cited was that in 1963, when she married Ozer Ucuran, a businessman, she refused to take his name and persuaded him to take hers, an unusual feat in a Muslim society. References THE WORLD - In Turkey, Still Climbing - NYTimes.com THE WORLD; In Turkey, Still Climbing By ALAN COWELL Published: June 20, 1993 AT first sight, the election last week of Tansu Ciller as Turkey's first woman Prime Minister seemed an anomaly in a society whose secular ideals are offset by a profound, Islamic conservatism.

In a way, though, the vote by the ruling True Path Party showed just how enduring the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk has proven to be since the founder of modern Turkey launched the land on an often-frustrated Western trajectory in 1923. Ataturk's commitment to women's rights was revolutionary for its time and place. He banned the Islamic veil, insisted on equal rights and gave women the vote in 1932, earlier than some of their European counterparts. Although it has taken 61 years to move from the voting booth to the Prime Ministry, the process has been comparatively rapid: it took longer, from the suffragette movement of the early 20th century, for Margaret Thatcher to become Britain's first woman Prime Minister. And most other Western nations, the United States included, seem still intent on keeping the top job, formally at least, for men. These days, though, Ataturk's legacy seems more ambiguous. True, many women have professional status as a result of educational and social policies dating from Ataturk's day: 40 percent of physicists and chemists are women; so are a sixth of the lawyers and doctors.

But a resurgence of Islamic sentiment has brought the veil back onto some streets. In the countryside, women still form the bulk of the menial labor force, and wife-beating is common enough to persuade some municipalities to set up "safe houses" for battered wives. Women, moreover, may not work without their husbands' permission. Nationally, there are fewer woman legislators than there were in Ataturk's time. Those developments, however, may not rank among Mrs. Ciller's most pressing priorities. The 47-year-old economist has been in politics for only three years and thus has to establish authority over both a troubled and overwhelmingly male party and an uncertain coalition. And she has still to achieve what she failed to do as an economic adviser to her predecessor (and the current President), Suleyman Demirel: bring down Turkey's 60 percent inflation rate to manageable proportions. Photo: Tansu Ciller, Turkey's new Prime Minister. (Sigli-H.H.A./Sipa) Tansu Ciller -- New Internationalist New Internationalist Prime Minister of Turkey History: Born on 24 May 1946 in Istanbul.

She was educated in the US and Turkey and lectured at the University of Connecticut before becoming Professor of Economics at Bosphorus University. A member of the Dogru Yol Partisi (the True Path Party), she was appointed Minister of State for Economics in 1991 and became Prime Minister two years later when Suleyman Demirel vacated the post to become President. Power plays in the ruling coalition have recently put her position under threat. Prosecutor’s notes to the team: Okay, so the shenanigans in the various Turkish ruling parties may mean Çiller is out of power by the time we bring this case. Don’t worry about that – it’s always been easier to indict a former leader than one still in office, for obvious reasons. As I write she’s hanging on by her fingernails but I’d bet on her staying power – she’s tough. She’s a fan of Britain’s Margaret Thatcher and enjoys being referred to as the Iron Lady. But the way she deals with Kurdish people in her country makes Thatcher look like Little Bo Peep. The first thing you have to understand about Çiller is why she is there. Turkey is desperate to join the European Union – gaining official membership of the rich world.

Çiller is Western-educated and dresses in a chic and highly expensive style – she is reputed to spend $400 a month on pantyhose/tights alone. Putting a Westernized woman at the head of an Islamic country reassures the Europeans and the Americans. And her background in free-market economics shifts the focus away from Turkey’s appalling human-rights record. Charges: Genocide – ‘ethnic cleansing’ and systematic attacks on Kurds who form a majority in Turkey’s six south-eastern provinces. More than 1,000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed. Prosecutor’s notes: Çiller says these people are simply ‘mountain Kurds’ and that international law protecting minorities does not apply to them. Hitler might have said the same about ‘ghetto Jews’. Denial of ethnic identity and religious freedom – Kurdish children are not allowed to be educated in their own language. Greek and Armenian schools and churches have been closed. Until 1992 it was illegal to speak Kurdish even in private – can you believe that? It is still illegal to use it in official communications or to express Kurdish identity in any way.

Land seizure – On 19 February 1995 Tansu Çiller introduced Law 4070, which allows the Treasury to seize and sell the land of anyone who does not have a title issued since the last military coup – which applies to 90 per cent of the country. In practice this has allowed vast areas of land to be legally seized – ordinary Turkish people are being dispossessed and often physically harmed as well. Politicians and gangsters are the main beneficiaries. Needless to say, Çiller has herself been a beneficiary of Law 4070. She has taken over land on the Aegean coast, at Kilyos on the Black Sea and at Kurtkoy near the site of a proposed new airport. Much of the land seized by politicians is sold on to Western companies such as Ford, Bayer, Fiat, Mazda and Trafalgar House. Some of the land is even used as security for World Bank loans – in 1994 $750 million were advanced in this way. Torture of prisoners – Amnesty International documents many cases of torture, the most common form of which is to suspend prisoners in the air by their arms for long periods.

Much of the torture still takes place in the notorious Bayramoglu prison featured in the movie Midnight Express. Collusion with the Mafia – The Mafia operates openly in Turkey – it is well known that towns such as Gebze, Pendik and Kartal are under Mafia control. The heads of Mafia families depend on political connections. Turkey has become a Mafia safe haven since there is no extradition and Turkish judges have been intimidated by the murder of those few who resisted. It’ll be hard to tie Çiller to this directly so I suggest we drop this one from the charge sheet. The evidence against her on this count is circumstantial. The newspaper Aydinlik published a list of Çiller’s landholdings. Its offices were attacked and one of its journalists disappeared. Coincidental, of course. Çiller’s True Path party has been accused of using organized crime to raise funds and deal with opponents. ANTICIPATED DEFENCE The needs of national security – The importance of protecting Turkish citizens from terrorism. Patriotism – ’the indivisible unity of the State’. These are defences calculated to appeal to almost any leader.

But her desperation to join the rich-world club is still her Achilles’ Heel: it’s surprising she’s endangered her cherished free-market project for such an indefensible folly as the war on the Kurds. REQUESTED SENTENCE Life imprisonment in the Bayramoglu Prison. A more creative sentence might confine her to a special unit in which she was only allowed to communicate in Kurdish. She would be denied pantyhose in case she hanged herself with it. Leyla Zana, a Kurdish member of the Turkish Parliament, smuggled this article out of prison into the hands of the world’s press on the eve of her trial for treason in December 1994. This Thursday, seven other Kurdish members of Turkey’s Parliament and I risk the death penalty when the State Security Court returns its verdict in our case. What crimes have we committed to warrant such punishment from a court established by the military dictatorship in 1980? Just one: bearing witness to the Kurdish people’s immense tragedy in Turkey. For 70 years the Kurds’ very existence has been denied and their language, identity and culture banned. This has involved rural depopulation and destruction of Kurdish villages, forests and traditional society.

Turkey’s human-rights minister acknowledged that in the past two years the Army has evacuated and destroyed at least 1,390 Kurdish villages. Some two million Kurds have been displaced, a dozen towns depopulated and five to six million Kurds forced into western Turkey by state terror and economic collapse because of a war now in its eleventh year. Elected in 1991 by Kurds to represent and defend their interests and aspirations, we obviously could not remain silent. Our duty as legislators was to speak out, explore all paths to end this frightful war, which has torn our country asunder, and seek a peaceful settlement for Turkey’s 15 million Kurds in a framework of democracy and existing frontiers. To speak freely in a country ruled by an anti-democratic constitution and laws imposed by military dictatorship is risky, even for legislators. Death squads have killed more than 2,000 political and human-rights activists uninvolved in the fighting. Among them were 82 activists of our Kurdish Democratic Party and 34 journalists and newspaper distributors. Such is the price for challenging the official, military version of events. For similar reasons 106 journalists, academics and writers are imprisoned.

My husband, Mehdi Zana, a former mayor of the main Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, spent 15 years in prison for speaking out; now he is back serving a four-year jail term for testifying before the European Parliament. I myself barely escaped two attempts on my life. I have been jailed since 5 March, charged with such ‘crimes’ as testifying before the US Congress’s Helsinki Commission and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, speaking on European television and uttering a phrase in Kurdish in Turkey’s Parliament celebrating Kurdish-Turkish friendship. My colleagues are on trial on similar charges. Our Kafkaesque trial has provided an exemplary insight into Turkish political and legal absurdities. The prosecution ordered us to be held in preventive detention. Five months later, Ankara’s State Security Court in five sessions refused our requests to confront prosecution witnesses and call defence witnesses and experts. Observer missions from international nongovernmental organizations, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe concluded that we were on trial solely for expressing our views. That is unacceptable in a democratic state of law. They recommended that we be freed and given back our parliamentary seats. Prime Minister Tansu Çiller has said the Kurds have brainwashed Western governments.

Officials suspect that these nongovernmental organizations are crypto-terrorist, and have banned even Amnesty International. The authorities are prisoners of out-of-date nationalism and are paranoid about ‘Kurdish separatism’. Kurdish legislators make perfect scapegoats for modern Turkey’s most serious economic, political, social and moral crisis. This absurd war has cost more than 15,000 lives and devours almost half the budget. That is why the military leaders want to calm public opinion with a few token Kurdish victims. I am 33. For 14 years I have lived with persecution and seen friends tortured or killed for wanting to live in peace and democracy with Turks on the sole condition that they respect Kurds’ identity and culture. I have two children, a husband and many dear friends. I love life. But my passion for justice for my people, who are suffering for dignity and freedom, is greater. What value is a life of slavery, humiliation and contempt for what you hold dearest – your identity? I will not knuckle under to Turkey’s inquisition. Beyond my fate, I am concerned about the Kurdish and Turkish peoples.

Turkey will not settle the problem of its 15 million Kurds by sending eight legislators to the gallows. Turkish extremism risks provoking a general catastrophe for both peoples and for the West, which counts on Turkey as a forward base in a strategically important region. The West should realize that Turkey is not just a locale for military bases and electronic eavesdropping. It is a country of passions and conflicts which can, as in the Shah’s Iran, spill over into the irrational. If Turkey’s warlords assassinate hopes for the peaceful solution that we legislators represent, the road is open for Kurds to switch massively to the camp of violence and Islamic fundamentalism. And if the Kurds, next door to Iran’s Islamic revolutionaries, switch, then all Turkey will follow suit. And woe to us all. (Leyla Zana was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment and is still in jail.) Mehmet Gürkan, head of the Kurdish village of Akçayurt in south-eastern Turkey ‘I supported the Government. But they came to my village and burned it down. They took me to the gendarmerie station and tortured me. My ribs were broken. They collected the people outside the village and gave them nothing for four days.

They also burned all of our crops. I came to Ankara to ask help from the Government.’ This is what Mehmet Gürkan told the Turkish Daily News on 3 August 1994. On 18 August he ‘disappeared’. He had returned to his village to collect a few belongings and was seen being detained by security forces before being taken away in a helicopter. When his wife made inquiries the authorities denied holding him. The conflict in south-east Turkey between government forces and guerrillas of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) has claimed more than 16,000 lives since it began in August 1984. Police operations against suspected PKK supporters and other Kurdish activists are being carried out all over Turkey. A state of emergency remains in force in 10 provinces in the east and south-east including Diyarbakir. Any person suspected of supporting the PKK is at serious risk of torture, ‘disappearance’ or extrajudicial execution.

(Amnesty International) Meral Daanis Bestas, lawyer and human-rights campaigner A lawyer and secretary of the Diyarbakir branch of the Turkish Human Rights Association, she says she was assaulted and tortured while being held incommunicado for four weeks at the local Gendarmerie HQ in November 1993. She was soaked for an hour naked in freezing cold water. She was also blindfolded, slapped, kicked and subjected to crude sexual insults. ‘They brought me a statement and asked me to sign while I was blindfold. I said "I am a lawyer. I am not going to sign anything that I have not read.”’ Amnesty International be-lieves the real reason for her prosecution is her work for clients who have made official complaints against the Turkish security forces for torture and other human-rights violations. (Amnesty International Focus) Ismet Imset, columnist for Istanbul’s Ozgur Ulke newspaper A serial bomb attack was carried out on three offices of a Turkish newspaper early last Saturday morning (3 December 1994). The Ozgur Ulke, a pro-Kurdish newspaper, has suffered dearly owing to this attack, which left behind one dead and 23 wounded.

This attack came only four days after Turkey’s military-dominated National Security Council held a meeting in which a decision was taken to silence Kurdish aspirations and demands. Both the Turkish Chief of General Staff and the Interior Minister are on record saying ‘Ozgur Ulke should be stopped’. The day of the attack the leader of the ultra-right-wing Nationalist Action Party, Alpaslan Turkes, issued a statement in which he said ‘We will not refrain from shedding blood’ in preventing Kurds from having their social and cultural rights. Ozgur Ulke is a continuation of Ozgur Gundem, a newspaper which was closed down last April following systematic attacks. Fifteen of its journalists were killed in that period while 330 separate court cases were launched. Its previous owner faces jail terms of up to 1,250 years for the commentaries and articles published in the paper. Journalists writing for Ozgur Ulke, including myself, are constantly threatened with death. Many of its employees have been detained and tortured by Turkish police in the past months and at least two of the detained are still registered among Turkey’s 230 ‘missing’ cases in 1994.

The body of one missing reporter was recently found – after being tortured and mutilated. Pressure on the newspaper is so great that although it has legal status in Turkey, kiosks selling it are routinely bombed and even children, 10- to 15-year-old street sellers, are killed.

Question: Tansu Ciller was the first woman Prime Minister of which European country?
Answer: Turkey