Turgut Ozal

Turgut Özal was a prominent Turkish politician, bureaucrat, engineer and statesman who served as the 8th President of Turkey from 1989 to 1993. He previously served as the 26th Prime Minister of Turkey from 1983 to 1989 as the leader of the Motherland Party. He was the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey in the military government of Bülend Ulusu between 1980 and 1982. After working briefly at the World Bank in the United States and as a university lecturer, Özal became the general secretary and later the leader of the main miners' trade union of Turkey in 1979, serving as a chief negotiator during large-scale industrial action in 1977. He unsuccessfully stood for Parliament in the 1977 general election as a National Salvation Party (MSP) candidate from İzmir. In 1979, he became an undersecretary to Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel's minority government until the 1980 military coup. As an undersecretary, he played a major role in developing economic reforms, known as the '24 January decisions,' which paved the way for greater neoliberalism in the Turkish economy. After the coup, he was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey responsible for the economy in Bülend Ulusu's government and continued to implement economic reforms. He resigned in 1982 following disagreements over economic policy. Özal formed the Motherland Party (ANAP) in 1983 after the ban on political parties was lifted by the military government. ANAP won a parliamentary majority in the 1983 general election and Özal subsequently became the Prime Minister of Turkey. While implementing several economic reforms concerning the exchange rate and deregulation, a rise in inflation and the growing conflict with Kurdish separatists led to ANAP winning reduced pluralities in the 1984 local elections. The watchword of this campaign was "Export-or-Die". Özal also pursued a pro-Western foreign policy, supporting Turkey's bid to join the European Community (EC) in 1987 and leading Turkey to join the United Nations coalition against Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He also supported increased rights for Turkey's Kurdish minority and negotiated a ceasefire with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) shortly before he died. Özal was a popular political figure in Turkey and was seen as a modernizer who led Turkey out of military rule and authoritarianism. He was also a devout Muslim who advocated for a synthesis of Islam and democracy in Turkey. He survived an assassination attempt by a right-wing gunman in 1988 when he was shot at a party congress, injuring a finger. He died of a heart attack in 1993 while still in office, amid rumors of poisoning by militants of the "deep state" - a shadowy nationalist strain within the Turkish establishment of the day. His body was exhumed in 2012 for an autopsy, which revealed evidence of poisoning, but the results were inconclusive. He was buried again at the Topkapı Cemetery in Istanbul. He was married to Semra Yeğinmen, with whom he had three children: Ahmet, Zeynep and Efe. His son Ahmet succeeded him as the leader of the Motherland Party and remained in parliament until 2002. His daughter Zeynep is a businesswoman and his son Efe is also a businessman. His brother Korkut Özal was also a politician and engineer who served as a minister in several governments.