Senior officials, his family, supporters and politicians paid tribute on Wednesday to Turgut Özal, Türkiye’s eighth president, who died on April 17, 1993.
Özal, credited with major reforms in the 1980s, died at the age of 65, reportedly from a heart attack, though the mystery over the exact cause of his demise prevails amid claims of his family that the president might have been poisoned.
On the occasion of the anniversary of his death, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz was among the names visiting the president’s grave in Istanbul, near the grave of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, another legendary politician who was a victim of a military coup in 1960.
Born into a middle-class family in the eastern Turkish province of Malatya, Özal returned to Türkiye as a senior official at a state-run electricity company after studying in the United States. An electrical engineer, Özal quickly rose in the ranks of the bureaucracy and was among the founding staff of the now-defunct State Planning Agency. He also worked as a coordinator, director and adviser in several public agencies, from the Economic Coordinator Board to the European Economic Community Coordination Board. He made his foray into politics when he was nominated as a lawmaker for the National Salvation Party (MSP) in 1977, though he could not win enough votes for a parliamentary seat.
In 1979, he was appointed the prime minister’s adviser while continuing his duty as the chief of the State Planning Agency. In this role, he was dubbed the “minister without a Cabinet seat” by the media due to a string of programs he launched to liberalize the Turkish economy. He was the architect of the “January 24 decisions” unveiled in 1980 by the government for the economic stability of the country struggling with the fallout from the political turmoil of the 1970s. Months after the “Decisions,” a military junta toppled the government while Özal was appointed as deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs in the first post-coup government. As the Turkish economy started reaping the fruits of Özal’s economic program, he quit his job over a disagreement with the government on monetary policies in 1982. The next year, he founded the Motherland Party (ANAP), which secured an unprecedented win in the elections the same year. He served as prime minister between 1983 and 1989, an unusually long tenure in the country that was accustomed to short-lived coalition governments prior to the military coup.
Though portrayed as conservative, ANAP pursued a policy of diversifying its supporters. Özal’s priority as prime minister was overhauling the economy following turbulent years. Along with nationwide programs, he launched the Southeastern Anatolian Project (GAP) to reinvigorate the neglected development of the region through infrastructure, agricultural and industrial projects.
In 1980, he was elected as the eighth president of the Republic of Türkiye, succeeding junta leader Kenan Evren. As president, he turned his attention to resolving the terrorism plaguing the country since the 1980s. Opting for a “civilian” approach to the issue fought by the military and police, Özal also held talks with top officials of Iraq’s predominantly Kurdish region, where the terrorist group PKK hid out. The president was usually tight-lipped about his one-on-one talks, including those with lawmakers of a party associated with the PKK, but his efforts helped a cessation of PKK’s attacks for a brief time.
Özal, who survived an assassination attempt in 1988, died in his presidential residence after his return from a five-country trip. His family has repeatedly called for an investigation into his death, but most investigations ended up inconclusive. Most recently, he was exhumed in 2012 after his son Ahmet claimed he was “murdered.” Forensic experts confirmed traces of toxic elements in his body, but his exact cause of death could not be defined.
Speaking on the sidelines of the commemoration ceremony by Özal’s grave, Vice President Yılmaz said they were grateful to Özal for what he achieved for ensuring basic rights and freedoms of citizens and their prosperity.
“Özal was a great statesman and a great politician. Both he and Menderes were people behind the milestone in Türkiye’s journey for democracy and development,” Yılmaz said. He mentioned Özal’s efforts to maintain a free market economy in the country, and his great service in turning around the economy and expanding abroad. “In the era of the transition from military coup to democracy, he achieved landmark reforms for rights and freedoms,” he said. Yılmaz said the incumbent government was following in the footsteps of Özal, to further improve democracy and development.
