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." 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 A Prime Target - tribunedigital-chicagotribune A Prime Target Some Turks Are Doubting The Abilities Of Prime Minister Tansu Ciller August 04, 1993|By James M. Dorsey. Special to the Tribune. ANKARA, Turkey — Tansu Ciller first made history in her native Turkey when she persuaded her husband to adopt her maiden name at marriage-no mean feat in a male-dominated Muslim country.

A charismatic, Chanel-suited economics professor, Ciller, 47, has since used her seven years of American training, good looks, confidence, charm and substantial family wealth to climb the political ladder with leaps. Riding a popular wave bent on political and economic change, she became on June 14 the first female prime minister of secular but mostly Muslim Turkey. Her ascendancy in the wake of the April death of President Turgut Ozal represents to many Turks the hope for further Westernization, a streamlining of the country's bloated bureaucracy and an end to old-style patronage politics. Yet, many Turks still wonder exactly how she intends to fulfill their hopes. With former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as her role model, Ciller (pronounced CHILL-air) projects herself as the champion of the urban, upwardly mobile middle classes. Displaying a willingness to take risks, her meteoric rise seemed to end three decades of Turkish politics dominated by mustachioed traditionalists unable to resolve Turkey's vast problems. She graduated from an American-run college in Istanbul, then received a master's and a doctorate in economics at the University of New Hampshire, and studied further at Yale.

No surprise, she hopes that her American-style approach to management will push her country into the 21st Century as an economic and political power at the crossroads among Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Ciller, the mother of two, radiates confidence, asserting in American-accented English that she will "give the leadership that is required" to finish the job of "restructuring the state" begun by Ozal, the man most Turks credit with launching Turkey's transition into a dynamic regional power. A relative novice to public life, she was first brought into government as economics minister by Suleyman Demirel, a fixture on the Turkish political scene for almost 30 years, who hoped that she would revamp his administration's image and give it an air of youth and innovation. She portrays herself as Turkey's "mother" and "soul sister" in a bid to give her administration a warm and humane character at a moment when it is fighting an increasingly bloody and brutal war against Kurdish separatists in southeastern Turkey and risks large-scale unemployment with the privatization of huge, unprofitable state-run economic enterprises.

Born in the Turkish financial and economic capital of Istanbul, Ciller, the daughter of a well-to-do provincial governor, is a typical product of modern Turkey. At Istanbul's Bosporos University, where she started teaching economics after her return from the United States in 1974, she represented a new breed of professional Turkish women willing to claim their place in society. Short honeymoon Recalling when she met Ciller at Bosporos University, sociologist Nilufer Gole remembers thinking, " `Wow,' as she pulled up in her white BMW and expensive white suit. Today, she's a success story, a dream that Turkey may want to share with her." Yet, less than two months after Ciller came to office, Turkey is starting to question whether she can make the dream come true. A series of political blunders and public gaffes have prompted members of the country's political, economic and intellectual elite to wonder aloud whether the third woman to run a Muslim nation-Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan and Begum Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh are the others-may turn out to be a great disappointment.

Party leaders have begun to conspire against her, and Demirel, who had favored a more status quo politician as his successor, appears to be trying to undermine her. Demirel recently rejected Ciller's efforts to revamp the bureaucracy by blocking her appointments to senior positions in the treasury and several other government agencies. Like President Clinton, Ciller is learning that honeymoons are short and changes are hard to bring about. But her situation is far more perilous since she can be removed by her own True Path Party at its congress scheduled for November. Predictably dubbed the Iron Lady of Turkey, she conveys determination to confront issues and a willingness to take responsibility. "I have never lost a battle," she says. `I want to move fast' In a recent interview, Ciller brushed aside allegations by senior members of the True Path and even some fervent supporters that she lacks political experience, a grasp of key issues and the ability to lead a team, and is blinded by ambition. She leaves no doubt that she will give the powerful military wide ranging freedom to suppress terrorists demanding independence for Turkey's 10 million Kurds.

And she insists that she will move ahead with rapid privatization of Turkey's massive public sector, which drains the country's resources and spurs on inflation already galloping at 66 percent. Turkish Leader Wins Vote of Confidence, Faces Challenges - latimes Turkish Leader Wins Vote of Confidence, Faces Challenges November 21, 1993 |HUGH POPE | SPECIAL TO THE TIMES ISTANBUL — Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller won a new vote of confidence in her leadership of the conservative True Path Party on Saturday, a rare moment of unity for a country deeply worried about its political and economic stability. More than 92% of 1,134 True Path Party delegates at a party congress in the Turkish capital, Ankara, voted for Ciller, while a virtually unknown last-minute rival took 3%. The 47-year-old, U.S.-educated economics professor became the first female prime minister of this Muslim country in June. "The road ahead is hard and long. But we are determined and brave. We will not run away. We will serve the country and stop terror," Ciller said to party delegates gathered in a sports hall.

But the gravity of the situation facing this nation of 60 million people on the crossroads of the Balkans and the Middle East was driven home Saturday by news that 10 more Turkish soldiers and 27 Kurdish guerrillas were killed in one battle in southeast Turkey. "Ethnic differences should be a source of cultural richness. But we will never allow them to become political differences. We will not allow the division of the country," said Ciller as delegates chanted curses against the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The delegates who backed Ciller were in part motivated by concerns that their party is slipping in opinion polls. If the senior coalition partner's share of the vote in national municipal elections next March falls too far, pressure could mount for new general elections well before the due date in 1996. No one party now seems able to win the all-out victory that Turkey needs for a stable government. Ciller became the True Path Party leader during the realignments that followed the death of President Turgut Ozal in April. But an initial wave of optimism has faded, and diplomats are now divided on her prospects.

Some see her as a lame duck who cannot organize her agenda; others believe that she is a determined leader who may yet turn the country around. Economic figures are contradictory. On the one hand, GNP growth is steaming ahead at an annual 9% in 1993 on top of an average 5% in the last decade. On the other, the trade balance has plunged sharply into the red after years of seesawing imbalances. Inflation is at an annual 67%, and on the rise. MORE: 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. 9 Female Muslim Heads Of State Who Broke Boundaries 9 Female Muslim Heads Of State Who Broke Boundaries Written by Aprille Muscara On June 5, 2015, multiple award-winning scientist Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim assumed office as President of Mauritius, becoming the first woman in her country to hold that position and one of only nine female Muslim heads of state in history. Here’s a glance at those strong Muslim women leaders who led nations, inspired peoples and broke boundaries: Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan Serving two terms as Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1998-90 and 1993-96, Benazir Bhutto was the first female Muslim head of state in the world. In 1999, she fled Pakistan for Dubai and lived in exile until 2007, when she returned to her homeland.

In late December of that year, two weeks before the 2008 general election in which she was the leading candidate, Bhutto was assassinated in a bombing. Begum Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh Begum Khaleda Zia was the Muslim world’s second ever female head of state. She served as Bangladesh’s Prime Minister twice, from 1991-96 and 2001-06. She appeared on Forbes’ list of 100 Most Powerful Women in the World three times, in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Tansu Çiller, Turkey Tansu Çiller is the country’s first and only female Prime Minister to date, serving from 1993-96. She was also the Deputy Prime Minister from 1996-97, a Professor of Economics and the President of the now-closed Istanbul Bank. Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina is the oldest child of Bangladesh’s first President and is the country’s current Prime Minister. She also served as PM from 1996 to 2001.

For much of the last 20 years, her chief political rival has been Begum Khaleda Zia (above); the two women have alternated as non-interim Prime Ministers since 1991. Mame Madior Boye, Senegal Mame Madior Boye was Senegal’s first female President, serving from 2001-02. With a background in law, she has also served as Deputy Public Prosecutor, Judge, Vice President of the International Federation of Women Lawyers and the African Union’s Special Representative for the Promotion of the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict. Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesia Megawati, as she is known, was Indonesia’s first and only female President, serving from 2001-04. She is one of the children of Sukarno, Indonesia’s first President who declared the country’s independence from the Netherlands in 1945. Megawati has also served as Indonesia’s Vice President.

Cissé Mariam Sidibe Kaïdama, Mali Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé was Mali’s first female President, serving from 2011-12 until she was removed from office in a coup d’état. She has also served as her country’s Special Advisor to the President, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Rural Development. Atifete Jahjaga, Kosovo As the current President of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga is also the first woman and youngest person to ever hold that office in the modern Balkans. She holds a law degree and a Major General rank and previously served as Deputy Director of the Kosovo Police. Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Mauritius A multiple award-winning biodiversity scientist by training, Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim is the current President of Mauritius and first woman to hold that position in her country. Assuming office just in the beginning of this month, she is also currently the Managing Director of CIDP Research & Innovation.

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: Turkey's Leaders - Çiller's Scandals :: Middle East Quarterly MIDDLE EAST QUARTERLY James H. Meyer is a free-lance journalist and teacher residing in Turkey. Tansu Çiller came to office in May 1993 amid a blaze of favorable publicity. Turkey's first female prime minister was trained as an urban economist, spoke fluent English, forcefully made the case against political Islam, and had a charming personality.

She then showed her political skills by managing to stay in power through the kaleidoscopic changes of Turkish politics over the next four years, changes for which she herself was primarily responsible. Today, however, Çiller is fighting for her political survival. Not only is she out of power for the first time in four years, but she is also beginning to suffer fallout from corruption allegations. More serious yet, Çiller is widely accused of doing great damage to Turkey's political life. Her coalition with the fundamentalists of the Refah (Welfare) Party from July 1996 to July 1997 is seen as creating a condition of instability in Turkey unknown since the bad old days around 1980; and she is blamed for causing the country to lose a year in its effort to restructure the economy. In other words, Çiller's greatest crime may be the one for which she cannot be formally tried: selfishly and needlessly disrupting Turkish politics. How did the golden girl of Turkish politics fall so far, so fast? THE ALLEGATIONS Actually, allegations of financial misdeeds dogged Çiller from before her political career.

In 1983, Çiller and her husband Özer were implicated in a scandal tied to the collapse of Istanbul Bankasi, one of Turkey's largest private banks at the time. Çiller's husband Özer was the bank's general manager, while Tansu maintained close, although unofficial, relations with it. It later turned out that the Çillers had set up at least eight companies to which Istanbul Bankasi had lent money. The bank's failure was no small matter; the Turkish government assumed its debts and had to devote two percent of its 1983 budget to squaring them.1 Though Çiller was never formally charged with wrongdoing, this incident meant that she had a reputation for dishonesty and shady dealing from before her assumption of the premiership. Allegations against Çiller during her years in high office include illegally tampering with the privatization of two state companies, the misuse of the prime ministry's discretionary funds, as well as involvement in the scandal known as Susurluk that has rocked Turkey since last November.

Tofaş and Tedaş The most straightforward charges against Çiller hold that, during her first tenure as prime minister (May 1993-December 1995), she improperly interfered in the privatization of Tedaş (an electric company) and Tofaş (an automobile company). After the state privatization board had collected sealed bids from companies interested in buying the government's shares of the two concerns, Çiller allegedly demanded that the bids be brought to her. Upon being returned to the privatization board, it was then discovered that the bids had been opened. Çiller is charged with illegally opening the bids in the absence of the privatization board (which she denies), giving her an opportunity to tamper with the process for financial gain. The Tofaş and Tedaş accusations, which appeared at the end of 1995, received muted but increasing publicity in the campaign leading up to the elections of December 24, 1995. In the fragmented political scene that emerged from those elections, however, corruption investigations against Çiller began to mix with politics, eventually leading to the unlikely partnership between Çiller and Refah leader Erbakan. The 1995 elections.

Three parties emerged form the December 1995 elections with roughly twenty percent of the vote. First among them was Erbakan's Refah Party, with 157 seats in the 550-seat parliament. Finishing second and third were the ideologically similar True Path and Motherland parties, with 135 and 133 seats, respectively. In the election campaign, Çiller had claimed that Refah was a force trying to lead Turkey "back to the dark ages" and that voting for Motherland, and thus splitting the secular-right vote, was tantamount to voting for Refah. Mesut Yılmaz of the Motherland Party, for his part, called for the formation of an "anti-Çiller coalition" after the election, and even went so far as to sign a statement of intent to form a government with Erbakan. It was only after Yılmaz came under intense pressure from the business community that makes up so much of his party's (and True Path's) supporters, that he backed out of the deal. In March 1996, however, True Path and Motherland finally struck a deal.

Çiller and Yilmaz would take turns being prime minister, with Yilmaz going first. After years of bitter rivalry, it seemed that Turkey's two center-right parties had finally united. The Motherland-True Path coalition, however, was to prove short-lived. Acting in his capacity as leader of the opposition, Erbakan quickly announced his intention to introduce a motion calling for a parliamentary investigation into Çiller's role in the Tofaş and Tedaş privatizations. Such an investigation would have been the first step towards lifting Çiller's parliamentary immunity and would have all but made the prospect of her assuming the premiership impossible. The motion, therefore, put Yilmaz in a difficult spot. To distinguish himself from Çiller, a more charismatic leader whose platform very much resembled his own, he had made Çiller's reputed corruption into an election issue. After having demanded an investigation into the Tofaş and Tedaş privatizations during the campaign, Yılmaz was now put into a position of either fracturing his newly-formed government or eating his words and looking like a hypocrite.

Deciding he wasn't that hungry, Yilmaz voted in favor of the investigations, putting the "MotherPath" coalition on very shaky ground. "Covered payments." A bizarre sequence of events known as the "covered payments" scandal then destroyed that coalition for good. In early May 1996, when Yılmaz and Çiller were yet coalition partners, Yılmaz announced that Çiller several months earlier had withdrawn more than $6 million from the prime minister's discretionary fund without telling anyone how she had spent the money. The discretionary fund is often used for special intelligence operations and other purposes that cannot be made public. Tradition, however, has it that the outgoing prime minister gives an account to his successor on how the money has been spent. Çiller, however, citing reasons of "national security" refused to tell either Yılmaz or President Süleyman Demirel. Finally, following an "Anatolian Tour" to state her case in Turkey's heartland, she returned to Ankara for a showdown discussion with Demirel. Emerging from their early June meeting, Çiller announced that all had been cleared up.

Demirel announced that same day, however, that Çiller's explanation was unsatisfactory and he expressed surprise at her announcement. Cornered, Çiller turned to the only politician who didn't demand that she account for the discretionary fund expenditures: Necmettin Erbakan. In a shocking turn of events, she broke with Yilmaz and joined forces with Refah, making Erbakan prime minister. Not surprisingly, the new government made its first order of business voting down an opposition proposal to investigate the Tofaş-Tedaş and discretionary funds scandals (which Erbakan himself had proposed just weeks earlier). Çiller's reluctance to face hearings in these twin scandals had great consequence. For the country, it placed a fundamentalist Muslim party in power for the first time in Turkey's seventy-four year history as a republic. For Çiller, this fateful move kept her out of court for another year or more (being part of the ruling coalition, she was protected from the prospect of having her parliamentary immunity lifted and being brought to trial). At the same time, it more than anything else sealed her doom in Turkish politics. SUSURLUK Then erupted another scandal, the most infamous of all those revolving around Çiller.

It began as a simple traffic accident on the evening of November 3, 1996, outside the town of Susurluk in Turkey's west. Before long it devolved into a litany of intrigue, including accusations of state-mafia connections and state-sponsored assassinations. In the traffic mishap, a Mercedes car pulling out of a gas station crashed into an oncoming truck. Three of the Mercedes' four passengers were killed: Huseyin Kocadag, a former captain in the Special Operations Unit, a government anti-terrorist unit; a man named Mehmet Özbay; and Özbay's girlfriend Gonca Us.2 The lone survivor was Sedat Bucak, a True Path Party member of parliament from the southeast city of Urfa. Within hours of the crash, however, it came out that Özbay was none other than Abdullah Catli, a right-wing terrorist from Turkey's "time of troubles" in the 1970s. Interpol had been looking for Catli ever since his 1982 escape from a Swiss prison, where he had been held on drug charges.

Further complicating matters, the local police announced finding a cache of automatic weapons and silencers, many of them property of the Interior Ministry, inside the luggage compartment of the Mercedes. Further investigation in the days following the accident revealed that Catli had no fewer than eight (valid) national identity cards made out in different names. He also held two Turkish diplomatic passports which, to make matters more interesting, had been personally signed by the True Path interior minister of the time, Mehmet Agar. Perhaps most shocking of all, fingerprints found on the Kalishnikov that killed Kurdish businessman and casino operator Lütfü Topal in 1995 turned out to be those of Abdullah Catli. This led to charges that the government, or at least some portions of it, was involved in the Topal assassination. But why it should have done so has not been answered. In the parliamentary investigation that followed, Agar claimed that national security reasons prevented him from discussing Catli's relation to his ministry.

Nor could he discuss why he had supplied Catli with identity cards and passports under false names, nor how Interior Ministry weapons wound up with Catli in Bucak's Mercedes.3 Sedat Bucak, the True Path Party member of parliament who survived the car accident, told in his testimony of a casual relationship with Catli, whom he claimed to know only as Mehmet Özbay . This despite the facts that turned up: Bucak had known Catli for four years prior to the accident, had met both Gonca Us and Catli's legal wife, and had gone on vacation with him. In often contradictory testimony, Bucak explained that he had met Catli at a dinner party in 1992, and the two occasionally saw one another after that. Bucak claims the two men had coincidentally bumped into each other in Istanbul in November 1996, when they decided to visit a friend of Bucak's in another city; that was when the accident took place. Asked about the weapons and silencers in the back, Bucak proclaimed his puzzlement over how they got there and speculated about their having been planted after the accident.

As members of parliament, Agar and Bucak both enjoy parliamentary immunity, which means they cannot be subject to a formal police investigation. But removing their immunity requires a mere majority vote in parliament. So long as Çiller was part of the ruling coalition, she made sure that the two True Path deputies continued to enjoy protection. This has led to speculation that Çiller and her husband Özer-who has been accused of having mafia links-are also implicated in the scandal. With Refah (because of its ideology) and True Path (due to its leader) both isolated, a deal was struck whereby Refah would support True Path in not lifting the immunity of Agar and Bucak (not to mention Çiller), while True Path gave support to Refah in its ideological battle against the country's military. In the end, however, rumors of a coup coupled with an extraordinary set of press conferences by the military against the coalition led to the fall of the Refah-True Path government in June 1997. This resulted from the defection of nearly one-third of Çiller's parliamentary deputies.

In the July 12 confidence vote, only ninety-one of Çiller's original 135 True Path deputies joined her in voting against the government headed by Yilmaz, Çiller's arch-rival. CONCLUSION In Turkey, where stories of corruption big and small are not uncommon,4 financial scandals are often quickly forgotten. Indeed, Çiller faced little trouble from within her party during the initial Tofaş-Tedaş and discretionary funds accusations. The True Path leader's unforgivable sin, however, was the coalition agreement with Refah. It has turned her own party against her while bringing in no new support-Refah's voters are hardly pro-Çiller. Turkey's secular voters, who may have disliked Çiller before, now despise her. Isolated atop a crumbling party, Çiller may have made her last political mistake. On July 12, 1997, Necmettin Erbakan's fundamentalist Muslim-led coalition fell from power in Turkey. In its stead, Yilmaz put together a hodgepodge of right and left parties who agreed only on one thing: the need to keep power out of the hand of the fundamentalists.

For the time being, at least, this change in government brought an end to a months-long political drama that pitched Erbakan's coalition against the Turkish military, guardians of the country's secular tradition. It also created at least a possibility that the corruption that has been eating away at the heart of Turkish politics will be addressed. Although it is too early to know where all this will lead for Turkish politics, several points do seem safe to assert. First, Tansu Çiller may end up destroying True Path in an effort to remain its leader. Second, the center-right in Turkey is likely to remain divided, for only a handful of deputies leaving True Path have chosen to join Motherland. Instead, the majority have opted to either sit as independents or join the new Democratic Turkey Party of Ismet Sezgin, a former True Path minister. Third, Çiller's alleged corruption and attempted cover-up have done grievous damage to Turkish democracy by helping the fundamentalists reach power, increasing popular mistrust in the leadership, and bringing the military back into politics. 1 Doğan Akin, Uçuran Holding (Ankara, Bilgi Yayinevi, 1995) pp.25-50.

2 They had married in a religious ceremony but not in a civil procedure. Özbay also had a legal wife. For a timeline of the Susurluk revelations, see the Turkish monthly Tempo, April 2, 1997, pp. 20-23. 3 For Agar's statements, Veli Ozdemir, ed., Susurluk Belgeleri (Istanbul: Scala Yayincilik, 1997). pp. 229-94; for Bucak's, ibid., pp. 295-54. 4 Such as the scandals regarding the family of former President Turgut Özal, as well as current President Süleyman Demirel's brother, Yahya Demirel. Related Topics: Turkey and Turks | September 1997 MEQ receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free mef mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.

Question: Tansu Ciller became the first female Prime Minister of which Muslim country in 1993?
Answer: Turkey