rein art

7/29/2019 Rein Art

1/4

Middle East Review of International Affairs Vol. 3, No. 1 (March 1999) 80

Ambition for All Seasons: Tansu Ciller+

By Ustun Reinart*

Tansu Ciller, leader of the True Path party, is one of Turkey's most powerful politicians.

As Turkey prepares for its coming elections, she is a key powerbroker for forming the next

government. Yet she has constantly walked the edge of disaster, through both her political

decisions and personal choices.

A blonde, stylish woman stoodbehind a microphone at the TurkishParliament in Ankara, on January 6, 1999."In order to prevent a sabotage of thedemocratic system, we have taken control ofthe situation," she announced. Tansu Ciller,had surprised the country by offeringsupport for a minority government to beformed by Bulent Ecevit, leader of theDemocratic Left Party.

Thus, Turkey's current government

was dependent on the same woman who hasdominated Turkish politics since 1990.Ecevit may be prime minister but TansuCiller can make or break his government.After scandals, blunders, and after herpolitical career was apparently in shambles,Ciller is once more poised to hold the reignsof power.

Tansu Ciller enthralled Turkishpoliticians and voters early in this decadeand became the darling of Turkey's Western

allies. Yet only weeks before her latest stunt,Ciller had narrowly escaped a parliamentaryinquiry into an enormous fortune she hadacquired during her years in political office.In the last three years she has been accusedof abusing the government's slush fund inher term as prime minister, and her namehas been associated with criminal leaders.Many journalists and political analysts havecalled disastrous her latest stint ingovernment as coalition partner of theIslamist Refah party.

"She is probably the mostMachiavellian politican Turkey has seen fora long time," said Professor Kemal Kirisci, apolitical scientist at Bosphorus University inIstanbul. "For the sake of her goal she'll doanything. Part and parcel of herMachiavellianism is that while she has a lotof dirty linen herself, she has dirty linen onother politicians, and does not hesitate to useit."

This year, a book entitled Maskeli

Lady (The Masked Lady), an impeccablyresearched self-described "thriller" aboutCiller written by Faruk Bildirici, a columnistwith the daily newspaper Hurriyet, is aphenomenal best-seller in Turkey. Itdocuments her family background,childhood, rise to power, accumulation ofwealth and changes of political position. The"mask" refers to the winning smile onCiller's face at each public appearance.Ciller's unsuccessful bid to have the book

banned has only increased its popularity.Tansu Ciller was the daughter of a

modest middle class family. Her father hadunfulfilled political ambitions which heinvested in her daughter. For Tansu'sparents, it was a sacrifice to send their onlydaughter to Robert College, a privateAmerican school in Istanbul. There, Tansuwas known for her ambition, admiration ofAmerican culture, and for concealing thefact that her parents were less wealthy thanthe parents of most of the other students.

7/29/2019 Rein Art

2/4

Ambition for All Seasons: Tansu Ciller


She married Ozer Ciller, another graduate ofRobert College. The couple went to theUnited States for Tansu's Master's and her

Ph.D. They had a son there and in 1970,became American citizens. Tansu's intimatefriends told Bildirici that she was never evenmildly religious.

During the mid-1970s, Ozer receivedan attractive job offer from a large companyin Turkey and the couple returned. Tansubegan to teach economics at BosphorusUniversity (formerly Robert College).Bildirici says Tansu Ciller's formercolleagues all described her as fiercely

ambitious but with a very effective personalstyle.

In 1990, she told her friends that shewas entering politics to prevent the spread ofIslamic fundamentalism in Turkey,defending Turkish laicism. Under thementorship of Suleyman Demirel, thenleader of the True Path Party, (nowpresident), many believed the charismaticwoman was just what Turkey needed toboost its contemporary image. Sheimmediately rose to the rank of assistant tothe party leader.

After Ciller's entry into politics, thecouple began to accumulate real estate inTurkey and in the United States. Cillerstarted the 1991 election campaign with adeclaration of her wealth -- a false one. Shehad neglected to list her possessions in theUnited States: 4 houses, a boat, some landand a car.

In 1991, she was elected and sharedthe responsibility for the ministry of theeconomy in the coalition government. Soonthe economics professor began to surpriseher party colleagues with her carelessfigures and unusual requests. Early in 1992,she proposed to forego the civil servants'salaries for a month, as a budgetarymeasure. Her alarmed advisors had toinform Demirel who prevented the measure.Some of Ciller's press releases were

fictional. When World Bank official

Michael Wieken sent Turkey a letterspelling out the conditions his organizationrequired from Turkey, Ciller announced that

the World Bank had offered Turkeyunconditional support.

But despite such blunders, TansuCiller was riding high in 1992. She waselected as woman of the year in Turkey.Other women imitated her flowing, colorfulneck scarves and bought her perfume(Beautiful by Estee Lauder). That year,Ciller even impressed Libya's leaderMuammar Qadhafi, called her a model forall Islamic women. Reporting her successful

visits abroad, Turkish newspaper headlineswere euphoric: "Our minister has charmedthe Europeans!"

The Cillers were increasing theirinvestments in the United States. Theyfounded two separate companies and boughta large apartment block, a luxury house, ashopping center, and a hotel, with a totalvalue of $4.5 million worth of real estate.

Tansu Ciller hinted to Turkishjournalists that she was on her way to the"top." She took a leadership course in NewYork and began to say that Turkey wasready for a woman prime minister. Butalready, opposition parties were giving her ahard time, saying that her personal expensesfor travel, coffee, flowers, etc., were beingpaid from government funds.

When then President Turgut Ozaldied in 1993, Demirel became president.Ciller's moment had come. She went after

the prime minister's job. Her public relationconsultants had told her she should changeher style: Wear white for a look ofinnocence. Walk fast for a look ofdynamism. Put one of your hands on yourwaist during speeches for a look ofauthority.

Ciller personally lobbied mediaoutlets and won their support. In June 1993,she won the party leadership and becameprime minister. European newspapers called

her, "The symbol of Modern Turkey."

7/29/2019 Rein Art

3/4

Ustun Reinart


But she continued to walk along theedge of danger. Her assistants learned to beon their toes to protect her from her own

blunders. She often forgot the names offoreign heads of state. On the way to aNATO summit in Brussels where thequestion of Russia's membership was on theagenda, she surprised journalists by asking"Isn't Russia already a Nato member?"

She also spent state moneyprodigiously on her private requirements,exceeding past norms. It wasn't unusual fora government plane to make a return trip toArgentina to purchase a special ingredient

for a meal, or to fly in a particular type ofice cream for the prime minister.

By the 1993 elections, Tansu Cillerhad abandoned her urban, liberal image andembraced a nationalist, traditionalist one.Suddenly, she took a hard line towards theKurdish separatists in southeastTurkey. Theties between her, the police department andthe secret service grew closer. In the springof 1994, there was a sudden increase inpolitical murders. Ciller ordered the liftingof the parliamentary immunity of Kurdishmembers of Parliament belonging to theparty DEP. One afternoon in spring, theDEP MPs were shoved into police vans infront of the parliament building.

By the summer of 1994, the Cillers'wealth was beginning to make headlines.The real estate in the United States whichshe hadn't declared, somehow becameknown. Opposition parties proposed a

parliamentary investigation into the primeminister's wealth. Ciller bargainedindividually with party leaders to organize adefeat of the motion. She also announcedshe would donate a large portion of herwealth to charity before the 1995 generalelections.

Chiller campaigned on a platform ofTurkey's membership in the EuropeanCommunity, battling against Kurdishseparatism, and the fight against the Islamist

party which she called "the murderous

merchants of religion." The elections onDecember 24, 1995 yielded no winner. TheIslamists had received the highest number of

votes (21%), but no party had a majority.When Mesut Yilmaz, the leader of theMotherland party, started to negotiate withthe Islamist leader, Ciller accused him of"pushing Turkey to darkness." Yilmaz endedup forming a coalition government withCiller instead.

Meanwhile, the Islamist Party wasinvestigating Ciller's wealth and askingquestions about the disappearance of a largeamount of money from the secret slush fund

the day before she had left the primeminister's office. With three differentparliamentary investigations against her,Ciller was forced to leave the government.The coalition collapsed in the spring of1996.

The Islamists had collected thickfiles against her. After the June elections,she began to negotiate with them. When sheagreed for form a coalition with them, theystopped pursuing her. They also blocked theSocial Democratic Party's motion related tothe missing slush fund money. On June 28,1996, the new coalition was formed. TheIslamist leader became the prime ministerand Ciller became his assistant and ministerof external affairs. Once more, she changedher image. Now, she was being seen prayingin public, carrying prayer beads, coveringher head.

In the fall of 1996, when a Turkish

mafia leader, a police chief and a politicianfrom Ciller's party were found to have beentravelling together in the same car after atraffic accident, one of Ciller's closeassociates, Internal Affairs minister MehmetAgar, had to resign because of his ties toorganized crime and to right-wing deathsquad killings. Many seasoned politiciansbegan to leave Ciller's party. It looked as ifher career was collapsing.

Today, as Turkey heads toward

general elections in April 1999, Ciller's

7/29/2019 Rein Art

4/4

Ambition for All Seasons: Tansu Ciller


campaign posters flaunt a religious image ofherself. A couple of MPs from the Islamistparty have even jumped ship and joined her

group. "Don't leave your sister dependent onpeople from other parties in order to form agovernment. Show me your clear support!"she told a rally at Bursa in WesternAnatolia.

Once more, Ciller is riding high inTurkish politics, though some havenicknamed her "Saibe," which means taintedor stained. Many of her former admirers inEurope and the United States have distancedthemselves from her after her alliance with

the Islamist party and after the publicitysurrounding her wealth and her shadyconnections.

Still, suddenly, she is the one whodecides whether Turkey's current minoritygovernment will stand or fall. That's power.

+This article is adapted from a version

appearing in Women's International Net

(WIN) Magazine. To see WIN Magazine, go

to . For a

free subscription: [email protected]

with message: subscribe.

*Ustun Reinart is a writer in Quebec City,Canada and author of Night Spirits

(University of Manitoba Press, 1997. She is

currently teaching at Middle East Technical

University (METU) in her native Turkey.
http://welcome.to/winmagazinehttp://welcome.to/winmagazine

rein art

Documents