PR●FILES

Tansu Çiller and the Question of Turkish Identify

John Murray Brown

Tansu Çiller, Turkey 's conservative prime minister, had rarely seemed more animated. The 48-year-old former Istanbul professor had just given a feisty televised performance before party deputies to rebut accusations that she had used her position to buy prop- erty in the United States. A request for a public investigation, called for by the main opposition parties, had that same afternoon been voted down by Parliament.

It is hard to say whether her mood was one of vindication or just a sense of relief. In this part of the world, populist politicians have a habit of succumbing to corruption scandals. Certainly, Turkey 's first woman prime minister could hardly have welcomed an uncomfortable probe into her Massachu- setts real estate holdings, particularly at a time when she was imploring fellow Turks living abroad to send their savings home to bolster the country's struggling economy.

Since becoming prime minister in June 1993, after Süleyman Demirel was elevated to president, Çiller has fascinated and frus- trated the Turkish public in almost equal measure. Her rise to power is likened to that of Benazir Bhutto, another woman leader in a Muslim country. Indeed, earlier this year, Çiller and her Pakistani counterpart made a camera-catching visit to the beseiged city of Sarajevo. But the differences are more pro- nounced than the likenesses.

Prime Minister Çiller does not enjoy the backing of a strong political dynasty like the Bhuttos. Her father was governor of a modest-sized town in the Aegean region. Her reputed wealth--by her own admission she is worth $50 million--resulted from shrewd property speculation in Istanbul in the 1970 s. Single-minded certainly, she forced her husband, Özer, to adopt her maiden name--a provocative move even in more Westernized societies.

A political novice, she joined the True Path party only in 1990, and her surprise victory in the leadership contest shook the crusty political establishment. Insiders say that none of Demirel 's former cabinet voted for her. But for many ordinary delegates, she clearly represents the best hope for reviving the party's tired image, and the only chance of hanging on to power in the next election. With Öiller 's accession to the leadership, the True Path party --traditionally sup- ported by farmers and traders in rural Ana- tolia and on the Aegean coast--now hopes to appeal to a broader constituency among the growing urban middle class and busi- ness elites of Istanbul and other big cities.

The comparison Öiller consciously culti- vates is with Margaret Thatcher, the former British premier. With the economy in crisis and Turkey in a standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the turn- around Thatcher achieved with Britain 's economy in the 1980 s is clearly something Çiller would like to emulate.

Her opponents are quick to ridicule her election pledge to provide everyone with two keys--one for a car and one for a house. Yet she remains unchallenged on the Turk- ish political stage. Tansu Çiller 's energetic, often emotional, and frequently jingoistic campaign performance was instrumental in securing for the True Path party the major- ity of the vote in the March municipal elec-

tions. Her youthfulness, not to say her glam­ our, appeals to an electorate tired of musta­ chioed-male--dominated Turkish politics.

A liberal on the economy, she lectured at the University of Connecticut in the 1970s, but her political views have been less progressive. She is accused by opponents of exploiting populist themes like Islam and the Kurds to win votes. She once proclaimed that she took solace in the sound of the mu­ ezzin, who calls faithful Muslims to prayer-- a remark that caused some mutterings among Turkey's secular elite. During Rama­ dan, the Islamic holy month, she made a point of being photographed, her head cov­ ered, in the traditional breaking of the fast.

On the Kurdish issue, she has played to the nationalist gallery. Largely at Çiller's in­ itiative, Parliament voted to lift the immu­ nity of seven Kurdish deputies in April, a move that has badly damaged Turkey's in­ ternational image and has been condemned by the U.S. Congress and the Council of Europe. Erdal Inönü, the widely respected former deputy prime minister and son of Turkey's second president, compared thesituation with ...