T-123456
MEMBER
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2012
- Messages
- 11,579
- Reaction score
- 11
- Country
- Location
Halil Turgut Özal; 13 October 1927 – 17 April 1993) was Prime Minister of Turkey (1983–1989) and President of Turkey (1989–1993). As Prime Minister, he transformed the economy of Turkey by paving the way for the privatization of many state enterprises.
Early life and career
Turgut Özal was born in Malatya to a family with partial Kurdish roots, which he frequently spoke of in public speeches when he was president of Turkey. He completed elementary school in Silifke, middle school in Mardin, and high school in Kayseri. Özal studied electrical engineering at Istanbul Technical University, graduating in 1950.
Between 1950 and 1952, he worked at the State Electrical Power Planning Administration and continued his studies in the United States on electrical energy and engineering management between 1952–1953. After his return to Turkey, he worked in the same organization again on electrification projects until 1958. Özal was in the State Planning Organization in 1959, and in the Planning Coordination Department in 1960. After his military service in 1961, he worked at several state organizations in leading positions and lectured at ODTÜ (Middle East Technical University). The World Bank employed him between 1971–1973 Then, he was chairman of some private Turkish companies until 1979. Back to the state service, he was undersecretary to the Prime minister Süleyman Demirel until the military coup on 12 September 1980.
Political career
The military rulers under Kenan Evren appointed him state minister and deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs until July 1982.
Motherland Party era
On 20 May 1983 he founded the Motherland Party (Turkish: Anavatan Partisi) and became its leader. His party won the elections and he formed the government to become the 19th Prime minister on 13 December 1983. In 1987 he again became prime minister after winning elections.
He became the head of the transformation of the social and economic outlook of Turkey which led by the Motherland Party due to the wider global trend of neo-liberal transformation with anti-labor-union discourses.
Assassination attempt
On 18 June 1988 he survived an assassination attempt during the party congress. One bullet wounded his finger while another bullet missed his head. The assassin, Kartal Demirağ, was captured and sentenced to life imprisonment but pardoned by Özal in 1992. Demirağ was allegedly a Counter-Guerrilla, contracted by the movement's hawkish leader, General Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu. Two months later, Yirmibeşoğlu became the Secretary-General of the National Security Council. During Yirmibeşoğlu's tenure as secretary general, Özal heard about the allegations of Yirmibeşoğlu's role in the affair and forced him into retirement. In late 2008, Demirağ was re-tried by the Ankara 11th Heavy Penal Court and sentenced to twenty years in prison. In 2013 Özal's son Ahmet Özal said that several months before the assassination attempt Özal had survived a plane incident in which his official plane lost an engine and crash-landed. The manufacturer later reported a 95% probability that the plane would have exploded under the circumstances present.
Presidency era
Turgut Özal and George Bush in Istanbul.
On 19 November 1989, Özal became the eighth president of Turkey elected by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the first president to be born in the Republic of Turkey rather than the Ottoman Empire.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Özal made an effort to create alliances with the Turkic countries of Central Asia as well as Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus.
President Turgut Özal agreed to negotiations with the Kurdish PKK. Apart from Özal, himself half-Kurdish, few Turkish politicians were interested, nor was more than a part of the PKK itself. A first round occurred in the early 90s, and led to a cease-fire declaration by the PKK on 20 March 1993. After the president’s death on 17 April 1993, in suspicious circumstances, the hope of reconciliation evaporated, and the Castle Plan, which Özal had opposed, was enacted. Some journalists and politicians maintain that Özal's death was part of a covert military coup in 1993 aimed at stopping the peace plans.
Özal supported the coalition against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.
He is also called as "fatty of the Çankaya, the workers’ enemy" (Turkish: "Çankaya'nın şişmanı, işçi düşmanı") due to his statements and his role in the authoritarian populist policies against 1990 “Zonguldak Strike" of the coal miners.
In February 1991, he was made an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civilian honour, "for eminent service to Turkish/Australian relations".
The ceremony marking of the beginning of governance for the first Kaymakam Eyüp Sabri Kartal in Kavaklıdere, with President Turgut Özal and Vali Lale Aytaman
Death and exhumation
On 17 April 1993 Özal died of a suspicious heart attack while still in office, leading some to suspect an assassination. Özal had first become ill a month earlier.
He died just before he had the chance to negotiate with the Kurdish organization, the PKK. His wife Semra Özal claimed he had been poisoned by lemonade and she questioned the lack of an autopsy. The blood samples taken to determine cause of death were lost or disposed of. Özal had sought to create a Turkic union, and had obtained the commitment of several presidents of the newly independent Turkic states from the former Soviet Union. His wife Semra alleged that the perpetrator might have wanted to foil the plan.
Tens of thousands of people attended the state burial ceremony in Istanbul, in which Özal was buried next to the mausoleum of Adnan Menderes, whom he had revered.[citation needed]
On the fourteenth anniversary of his death, thousands gathered in Ankara in commemoration. Investigators wanted to exhume the body to examine it for poisoning. In September 2012, a court ruled that the grave be opened for another autopsy. On 3 October 2012 his body was exhumed. It contained the banned insecticide DDT at ten times the normal level. According to press reports, the "partially embalmed" remains were found to be well preserved, much to the experts' and public's surprise. It is reported that while the lower half of the body was subject to skeletonization, the upper half was preserved due to adipocere.
An autopsy report issued on 12 December 2012 stated his body contained poison but the cause of death was unclear. A trial charging retired general Levent Ersöz with his murder began in September 2013.
Early life and career
Turgut Özal was born in Malatya to a family with partial Kurdish roots, which he frequently spoke of in public speeches when he was president of Turkey. He completed elementary school in Silifke, middle school in Mardin, and high school in Kayseri. Özal studied electrical engineering at Istanbul Technical University, graduating in 1950.
Between 1950 and 1952, he worked at the State Electrical Power Planning Administration and continued his studies in the United States on electrical energy and engineering management between 1952–1953. After his return to Turkey, he worked in the same organization again on electrification projects until 1958. Özal was in the State Planning Organization in 1959, and in the Planning Coordination Department in 1960. After his military service in 1961, he worked at several state organizations in leading positions and lectured at ODTÜ (Middle East Technical University). The World Bank employed him between 1971–1973 Then, he was chairman of some private Turkish companies until 1979. Back to the state service, he was undersecretary to the Prime minister Süleyman Demirel until the military coup on 12 September 1980.
Political career
The military rulers under Kenan Evren appointed him state minister and deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs until July 1982.
Motherland Party era
On 20 May 1983 he founded the Motherland Party (Turkish: Anavatan Partisi) and became its leader. His party won the elections and he formed the government to become the 19th Prime minister on 13 December 1983. In 1987 he again became prime minister after winning elections.
He became the head of the transformation of the social and economic outlook of Turkey which led by the Motherland Party due to the wider global trend of neo-liberal transformation with anti-labor-union discourses.
Assassination attempt
On 18 June 1988 he survived an assassination attempt during the party congress. One bullet wounded his finger while another bullet missed his head. The assassin, Kartal Demirağ, was captured and sentenced to life imprisonment but pardoned by Özal in 1992. Demirağ was allegedly a Counter-Guerrilla, contracted by the movement's hawkish leader, General Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu. Two months later, Yirmibeşoğlu became the Secretary-General of the National Security Council. During Yirmibeşoğlu's tenure as secretary general, Özal heard about the allegations of Yirmibeşoğlu's role in the affair and forced him into retirement. In late 2008, Demirağ was re-tried by the Ankara 11th Heavy Penal Court and sentenced to twenty years in prison. In 2013 Özal's son Ahmet Özal said that several months before the assassination attempt Özal had survived a plane incident in which his official plane lost an engine and crash-landed. The manufacturer later reported a 95% probability that the plane would have exploded under the circumstances present.
Presidency era
Turgut Özal and George Bush in Istanbul.
On 19 November 1989, Özal became the eighth president of Turkey elected by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the first president to be born in the Republic of Turkey rather than the Ottoman Empire.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Özal made an effort to create alliances with the Turkic countries of Central Asia as well as Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus.
President Turgut Özal agreed to negotiations with the Kurdish PKK. Apart from Özal, himself half-Kurdish, few Turkish politicians were interested, nor was more than a part of the PKK itself. A first round occurred in the early 90s, and led to a cease-fire declaration by the PKK on 20 March 1993. After the president’s death on 17 April 1993, in suspicious circumstances, the hope of reconciliation evaporated, and the Castle Plan, which Özal had opposed, was enacted. Some journalists and politicians maintain that Özal's death was part of a covert military coup in 1993 aimed at stopping the peace plans.
Özal supported the coalition against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.
He is also called as "fatty of the Çankaya, the workers’ enemy" (Turkish: "Çankaya'nın şişmanı, işçi düşmanı") due to his statements and his role in the authoritarian populist policies against 1990 “Zonguldak Strike" of the coal miners.
In February 1991, he was made an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civilian honour, "for eminent service to Turkish/Australian relations".
The ceremony marking of the beginning of governance for the first Kaymakam Eyüp Sabri Kartal in Kavaklıdere, with President Turgut Özal and Vali Lale Aytaman
Death and exhumation
On 17 April 1993 Özal died of a suspicious heart attack while still in office, leading some to suspect an assassination. Özal had first become ill a month earlier.
He died just before he had the chance to negotiate with the Kurdish organization, the PKK. His wife Semra Özal claimed he had been poisoned by lemonade and she questioned the lack of an autopsy. The blood samples taken to determine cause of death were lost or disposed of. Özal had sought to create a Turkic union, and had obtained the commitment of several presidents of the newly independent Turkic states from the former Soviet Union. His wife Semra alleged that the perpetrator might have wanted to foil the plan.
Tens of thousands of people attended the state burial ceremony in Istanbul, in which Özal was buried next to the mausoleum of Adnan Menderes, whom he had revered.[citation needed]
On the fourteenth anniversary of his death, thousands gathered in Ankara in commemoration. Investigators wanted to exhume the body to examine it for poisoning. In September 2012, a court ruled that the grave be opened for another autopsy. On 3 October 2012 his body was exhumed. It contained the banned insecticide DDT at ten times the normal level. According to press reports, the "partially embalmed" remains were found to be well preserved, much to the experts' and public's surprise. It is reported that while the lower half of the body was subject to skeletonization, the upper half was preserved due to adipocere.
An autopsy report issued on 12 December 2012 stated his body contained poison but the cause of death was unclear. A trial charging retired general Levent Ersöz with his murder began in September 2013.
Last edited:
