Although the DYP came third in the1995 general election, she remained prime minister until she formed a coalition government withNecmettin Erbakan in 1996. TheSusurluk scandal that year revealed the relations between extra-legal organisations and Çiller's government. Revelations that she had employed individuals connected with theTurkish mafia and theGrey Wolves such asAbdullah Çatlı led to a decline in her approval ratings. Erbakan's and Çiller's government fell when tensions with the military, concerned with civilians' lack of commitment to secularism, boiled over. Thiscoup d'état by military memorandum was the fourth in the republic's history. DYP declined further in the1999 general election. Despite coming third in the2002 general election, Çiller's DYP won less than 10% of the vote and thus lost all parliamentary representation, which led to her resignation as party leader and departure from active politics.
In addition to her job at Boğaziçi, Çiller made a name for herself with her studies atTÜSİAD and her critical reports of theMotherland Party's (ANAP) economic policies. For a brief period she was a consultant toBedrettin Dalan, then Mayor ofIstanbul. In December of the same year, she was elected to the administrative board of the other major center-right party, theTrue Path Party (DYP) and became the deputy president responsible for the economy. Çiller entered parliament as a deputy from Istanbul in the1991 election. Çiller took credit for some DYP slogans for the election, such as "two keys", but also generated controversy with the economic program called UDİDEM, which was not implemented by the government. DYP won the election, and formed acoalition government with theSocial Democrat Populist Party (SHP). Çiller was appointed as a minister of state responsible for the economy by Prime MinisterSüleyman Demirel. She was elected to the executive board of DYP and acquired the position of deputy chair.[4]
After the death in office of PresidentTurgut Özal (which according to some was part of analleged military coup), Prime Minister Demirel won the1993 presidential election. Suddenly the important position as prime minister and leader of the DYP was vacant. The party found itself in a leadership crisis. Çiller was no obvious candidate, but her three challengers could not muster the political capital to compete effectively. The media and business community supported her, and her gender gave the impression that Turkey was a progressive Muslim country. She fell 11 votes shy of a majority in the first ballot for party leader. Her opponents withdrew and Çiller became the party's leader and on 25 June, the first and so far only femalePrime Minister of Turkey. She continued the DYP-SHP coalition with small changes (50th government of Turkey).[5]
(1993–1996)While forming her coalition an Islamist mob set fire to a hotel which was hosting anAlevi cultural event, killing 35. TheSivas massacre and the government's slow response foreshadowed Çiller's future handling of human rights.
Çiller chose to continue Demirel's coalition government with the SHP, but replaced most of the ministers from her own party. She was the only woman in cabinet until 1995, when a woman state minister for women and family affairs was appointed. As Prime Minister Çiller promoted a pro-military conservative populism and economic liberalism. She shifted the DYP more to the right compared to her mentor Demirel.[6] 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 women politicians, though was accused of being authoritarian. Çiller appeared uninterested inwomen's issues.[7]
Çiller played a major role in reforming Turkey's economic institutions, which are known as the5 April Decisions [tr] and was rewarded withIMF funding.
Her premiership preceded over the intensifyingarmed conflict between theTurkish Armed Forces and thePKK, resulting in Çiller's enacting numerous reforms to national defense and implementing theCastle Plan. TheCastle Plan (previously approved by theNational Security Council) was implemented to combat the PKK (although elements of the strategy preceded the official plan). Çiller transformed theTurkish Army from an organization using vintage equipment from theUS Army into a modern fighting force capable of countering the PKK, usinghit-and-run tactics.[citation needed] With a better equipped military, Çiller's government was able to persuade theUnited States and theEuropean Union to register the PKK as a terrorist organization. However, Çiller was responsible forwar crimes andcrimes against humanity perpetrated against theKurdish people by the Turkish military, security forces, and paramilitary. Several reports of international organizations of human rights documenteddestroying and burning Kurdish villages and towns andextrajudicial killings of Kurdish civilians perpetrated by the Turkish military during Çiller's government of 1993–1996.[1][2]
Her overall approach to the Kurds was ambiguous, while she suggested for the Kurds an autonomy similar the one theBasques have inSpain, she retracted her statement upon pressure from theTurkish military.[8]
She declared in 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 traveling in police vehicles and then killed somewhere along the road from Ankara to Istanbul.Abdullah Çatlı, a leader of the ultra-nationalistGrey Wolves and an organized crime figure, demanded money from people who were on "Çiller’s list", promising to get their names removed. One of his victims,Behçet Cantürk, was to pay ten million dollars, to which Casino KingÖmer Lütfü 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.[9]
Following the collapse of her government, allegations of corruption were filed against Çiller, included among the many charges was that she interfered in the privatization of the state run corporationsTofaş andTedaş by demanding that she should read the sealed bids that prospective companies put forward. These bids were later given back to the privatization board and were found to be opened, presumably allowing Çiller the opportunity to financially benefit from the privatization. In addition she allegedly used discretionary funds allocated to the prime ministry for her personal benefit, and refused to reveal to President Demirel or to future Prime MinisterMesut Yılmaz what they were used for, using the excuse of "national security."[10]
Her popularity also suffered whenMilliyet ran an exposé of her undeclared properties in the United States. A motion to investigate Çiller's assets was rejected in the parliament. She announced that she would donate her property to the Martyr Zübeyde Hanım Mother's Foundation before the1995 election, but never followed through with this.[11]
Çiller was prime minister during the January 1996Imia/Kardak crisis with neighbouringGreece.[citation needed] As deputy Prime Minister under Erbakan's premiership, Çiller declared that ifGreece tried to divideAlbania, it would have the Turkish Army inAthens 24 hours later.[13][14]
After the withdrawal of theRepublican People's Party (CHP) from the coalition in October 1995 (the SHP had split, merged, and renamed itself) Çiller attempted to form a minority government withconfidence and supply from theNationalist Movement Party (MHP), which failed in less than a month (51st government of Turkey). She agreed to form another cabinet (52nd government of Turkey) with the CHP in the lead up to1995 general election. Çiller employed nationalist and secularist rhetoric in the party's first election with her as party chair. DYP received a resounding defeat, losing 30% of its support from 1991.
Coalition negotiations were protracted, and Çiller remained in office at the head of the DYP-CHP coalition until March 1996, when the DYP formed an unstable coalition with ANAP and theDemocratic Left Party (DSP) supplying confidence, withMesut Yılmaz becoming prime minister, and herselfAlternate Prime Minister.Necmettin Erbakan filed suit in theConstitutional Court when the government succeeded in a vote of confidence with only a plurality, not a majority –Bülent Ecevit's DSP voted to abstain in the end. Çiller found herself boxed in from two directions: theGrand National Assembly voted to investigate allegations of corruption against her in a vote in which opposition parties –even her coalition partners– supported, and the Constitutional Court ruled that the government's vote of confidence was unconstitutional. Prime Minister Yılmaz resigned 6 June, ending theANAYOL government.
After the Motherland–DYP coalition collapsed in June 1996, the DYP formed ahistoric coalition with theWelfare Party (RP), underNecmettin Erbakan, with Çiller as minister of foreign affairs,deputy prime minister, and alternate prime minister. This coalition was controversial, not only did an openly Islamist politician become premier for the first time in the history of the Turkish Republic, but Çiller lost credibility for joining forces with those she most criticized on the campaign trail.[17] Whatever Çiller and Erbakan said of each other in the past was history, both were isolated and needed each other to survive. Çiller needed a coalition partner to keep a parliamentary majority from lifting her and her allies' immunities to investigate her corruption charges, while Erbakan needed the same so as to fight his ideological struggle against the secularist Turkish military.[10]
In an eight (Welfare and DYP members) to seven vote, the Parliamentary Investigation Commission decided that her misuse of public funds on Tofaş and Tedaş tenders had no need to be reviewed by the Constitutional Court. The coalition with Welfare has been interpreted as aquid pro quo for Çiller's acquittal. She was reelected chairwoman of DYP in a party congress, butHüsamettin Çindoruk quit with several DYP deputies to form theDemocrat Turkey Party (DTP).[18]
After the November 1996Susurluk car crash, which resulted ina scandal that demonstrated the close ties that the government, security services, organized crime, and far-right groups had with each other, she praisedAbdullah Çatlı, 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."[19][20] TheCitizens' Initiative for Eternal Light lead a series of protests against the government for its links with organized crime groups.Interior MinisterMehmet Ağar resigned following the scandal, and was replaced byMeral Akşener.
TheTurkish Armed Forces eyed the coalition with great suspicion, but Çiller hoped that her secular credentials and strong relationship with the military could ease tensions. She positioned herself as an intermediate between the secularist military and the Islamist Welfare Party. However, by the beginning of 1997, relations between the government and the military were increasingly strained, especially after a Welfare mayor ofSincan hosted the Iranian Ambassador who gave a speech in support ofSharia Law (SeeJerusalem Meeting).[6] The military subsequently displayed a show of strength by driving a tank convoy through Sincan a few days later.
After a nine-hourNational Security Council meeting heldon 28 February 1997, a set of demands were presented to the Refah-Yol government to combat what the military calledİrtica (reactionarism). Çiller's relationship with the military completely broke down. She saw that the military was determined to overthrow the government, and recommended retiring the chief of staff and force commanders, but this which was blocked by a calmer Erbakan. Çiller and Akşener were successful in sacking the Chief of National Police and getting his replacement to wiretap high ranking generals of theTurkish Armed Forces.[14] Upon one general learning of that he was being wiretaped by the Interior Ministry he allegedly threatened to "impale her [Akşener] like a goose."[6]
With resignations of DYP ministers from the government and pressure from the military, Erbakan resigned, and the "post-modern coup" concluded on 30 June 1997. DYP and others expected to form a government under Çiller, but President Demirel disregarded the rotation agreement and asked ANAP leader Yılmaz to form the new government instead. While Erbakan's fall from power condemned his political career until the end of his life, Çiller's was also effectively over. Her maneuvers, political excuses, failed policies, and scandals made her very unpopular. Almost one-third of her party didn't join in voting with her against the confidence vote of Yılmaz's new government.[10] 35 women's organizations took her to court because she lacked feminist principles. She was also criticized for undermining democracy and threatening journalists.[21][6]
Çiller was investigated by the Turkish Parliament on serious corruption charges and abuses of power following her period in government. Along withMesut Yılmaz, she was later cleared of all charges mainly due to technicalities such asstatute of limitations andparliamentary immunity. Near the end of 1998, the corruption files about Yılmaz and Çiller were covered up at the commissions of the parliament in a common action staged by DYP,ANAP andDSP MPs.[22] In the1999 general election she presented herself as a leader of the downtrodden and the religious, pausing her campaign speeches during the prayer ofAdhan, or demanding thatwomen with their headscarves on should attend university.[23] Her party polled at only about 12%.[24] She was still reelected DYP's chairwoman in a party conference later that year, and becameLeader of the Main Opposition with the closure of Erbakan'sVirtue Party and the split in theMilli Görüş movement.
Çiller's political career came to its end when her party narrowly failed to poll above the 10% threshold in the2002 general election, thus receiving no representation in parliament despite her role as Leader of Main Opposition for more than two years. In a press conference she announced her retirement from politics, and was succeeded by Mehmet Ağar.[25]
Çiller is a member of theCouncil 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 forcollective action on issues of critical importance to women andequitable development.[26]
In addition to Turkish, Çiller can speakEnglish andGerman fluently. She has two children with her husband,Özer Uçuran Çiller who died of heart attack at his home inYeniköy, İstanbul, on 1 June 2024, at the age of 86.[29]
^Arat, Yeşim (1998) "A women prime minister in Turkey: did it matter?"Women & Politics, 19(4): 1-22; Jensen, Jane (2008)Women political leaders: breaking the highest glass ceiling New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 41-2, 131; Skard, Torild (2014) "Tansu Çiller" inWomen of power - Half a century of female presidents and prime ministers worldwide, Bristol: Policy Press,ISBN978-1-44731-578-0, pp. 392-3
^Arat, Yesim (1998) pp. 6-8; Bennett, Clinton (2010) "Tansu Ciller" inMoslem women of power, London: Continuum, pp. 110, 129; Cizre, Umit (2002) "Tansu Ciller: lusting for power and undermining democracy" in M. Heper and S. Sayari:Political leaders and democracy in Turkey, Lanham, MD, Oxford, Boulder, CO, and New York, NY: Lexington Books, pp. 201-2; Jensen (2008), p. 139; Skard (2014), pp. 393-4
^Wuthrich, F. Michael (28 July 2015).National Elections in Turkey: People, Politics, and the Party System. Syracuse University Press. p. 215.ISBN9780815634126.
^Rubin, Barry; Heper, Metin (16 December 2013).Political Parties in Turkey. Routledge. p. 96.ISBN9781135289386.
.jpg)
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg)
