COMMENTARY TURGUT ÖZAL TWENTY YEARS AFTER: THE MAN AND THE POLITICIAN Turgut Özal Twenty Years After: The Man and the Politician CENGİZ ÇANDAR* ABSTRACT Whether Turgut Özal was a good politician remains up for debate. However, there is no question that he indeed was (and is) a significant historical persona. He guided his country into the twenty-first century. When Özal suddenly passed away in 1993, he had already led Turkey to the next century, even though the twenty-first century would technically begin only seven years later. mong the numerous com- political skills. In particular, he held mentaries published following in high regard Sultan Abdulhamid II, ATurgut Özal’s death, it was the an Ottoman sultan of the last period following remark that struck me the of the Empire of equally high caliber. hardest: “Turgut Bey was not a good I remember his expressed admiration politician. For he was a good man.” for Mehmed the Conqueror, Selim I, Suleiman the Magnificient, Murad II This was the most striking assessment and Bayezid II, whom he would refer to me because it was his qualities as a to with a facial expression overshad- good man that marked me in our fre- owed by a sense of inadequacy and quent encounters over the final two modesty: “What kind of men were years of his life. Turgut Özal was an they? How did they rule over such extremely courageous man, who did vast lands and such a diverse popu- not seem to posess the supposedly lation? Look at us, and look at them!” * Journalist, indispensable qualities of any good and a former adviser to politician: ruthlessness and the killing The people he talked about were rul- President instinct. ers with absolute power, great might Turgut Özal and enough fortitude to send their Insight Turkey He admired the Ottoman sultans of siblings and even sons to their deaths Vol. 15 / No. 2 / the Empire’s classical period for their for “the well-being of the state,” while 2013, pp. 27-36 2013 Sprıng 27 COMMENTARY CENGİZ ÇANDAR AA / Hasan Aydın Turgut Özal felt he was the product Doğan in a rather harsh manner. Lat- of a country restricted by the na- er developments proved Doğan right. tion-state ideology of the past cen- tury and a multi-party democracy. Following Özal’s death, Taha Akyol He had a different set of qualities. He and I had hosted Hüsnü Doğan at a could not resemble them. He was the television show where he spoke very kind of man who was compassionate highly of the late President. When toward people, devoid of wrath, quick Taha Akyol referred to the aforemen- to forget his rage, and good-hearted. tioned dispute and asked him spe- Turgut Özal was a good man. cifically what he thought about the matter, Doğan looked down for a few I was glad to see that my impression seconds, and offered a brief response of him was accurate when Hüsnü following a brief moment of silence: Doğan, Özal’s beloved cousin, who “Turgut Özal was a good man!” also served as a cabinet member in multiple governments, told me about the following instance: A Monumental Figure At some point, Turgut Özal and Whether that good man was also a Hüsnü Doğan had a falling out. good politician remains up for de- When the two supported opposite bate. However, there is no question candidates for the Motherland Party’s that he indeed was (and is) a signifi- provincial offices in Istanbul during cant historical persona. For me, Özal the split that eventually led Mesut Yıl- was the most important figure in the maz to become Chairman and Prime Republic’s history after (or along- Minister, Özal had criticized Hüsnü side, for that matter) Mustafa Kemal 28 Insight Turkey TURGUT ÖZAL TWENTY YEARS AFTER: THE MAN AND THE POLITICIAN passed away in 1993, he had already Early in the 1980s, led Turkey to the next century, even though the twenty-first century he was one of the would technically begin only seven rare people that years later. could foresee the It was Özal’s strong foresight that Soviet Union’s established him as an extraordinary approaching demise historic figure. Early in the 1980s, he was one of the rare people that and began to forge could foresee the Soviet Union’s ap- a vision for the proaching demise and began to forge future based on that a vision for the future based on that prediction. Özal voiced this opin- prediction ion in a careful yet comprehensive manner. Özal’s contemporaries, who were intent on viewing him as a clas- sic right-wing politician, did not Atatürk. I voiced this claim by de- heed his words by attributed them to fining Özal as “the man who carried Özal’s anti-communist or anti-Soviet Turkey from the twentieth and into bias deeply rooted in his dislike of the the twenty-first century.” In that re- Left. Turgut Özal, however, was not a gard, he was, indeed, a monumental man to let himself be boxed into con- figure. ventional categories and qualified as leftist or rightist. It was his visionary History’s periodization in school nature –rightfully attributed to him- textbooks differs from its compart- that allowed Özal to predict the So- mentalization by world-renowned viet Union’s demise. For him, In the and influential historians –one of post-Brezhnev period, following the whom was the late Eric Hobsbawm. short-lived tenures of Yuri Andropov For the textbooks the twentieth cen- and Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail tury starts by January 1st, 1900 and Gorbachev’s rise to power and adop- ends on midnight of December 31st, tion of perestroika and glasnost as well 1999. According to latter, however, it as developments in Eastern Europe – was the Great War in 1914 that closed the Soviet Union’s historic sphere of the nineteenth century and start- influence- signalled the fated disinte- ed the twentieth century. Similarly, gration of the regime and its socialist the twentieth century ended in 1989 model. Before long, the Berlin Wall when the Berlin Wall fell and thus fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union bringing to an end the Cold War. ceased to exist a year later. It was in this sense that Turgut Özal Turgut Özal’s accurate understand- guided his country into the twen- ing on the new stage in world history, ty-first century. When he suddenly globalization, and its various dynam- 2013 Sprıng 29 COMMENTARY CENGİZ ÇANDAR ics and indications fueled his gift of where he received his high school ed- swift foresight. It is quite probable ucation. Briefly after graduating from that Özal, a trained engineer who Istanbul Technical University as an has become aware of the broader and electrical engineer, he entered into state service and joined the first class of Turkish engineers that travelled to Özal’s dream was to establish the United States for an internship. a Turkic World among the Özal used the following words when former Soviet republics he described to me how the Manhat- posessing Turkic cultural, tan skyline made him feel when he first set foot in New York along with a linguistic and historical group of his colleagues: “The contrast commonalities and to present between the poverty and underdevel- opment of the country we came from Turkey as a pole of attraction and the view before our eyes led me alongside Azerbaijan to contemplate what have they done to succeed and what we have not. What gave them superiority over us? larger world outside of Turkey by the At the moment, questions popped up early 1950s had a major part in shap- in my mind regarding the validity of ing his own sharp outlook. such proverbs as “a Turk is worthy of the whole world.” Turgut Bey –this was how those close to him referred to him- represent- ed a curious synthesis between his A Man of Distinct Qualities and bonds with tradition and his union Personality with modernity. What fundamentally distinguished Özal from his former One of Turgut Özal’s most striking boss and political archrival, Süley- qualities was to inquire and search man Demirel, was his urban middle endlessly. Knowing that I was an ac- class background. While Demirel – tivist during the left-wing student re- also an alumnus of Istanbul Techni- volts of 1968, he would constantly ask cal University whom Özal viewed as me about that period and particularly an older brother- was a rich villager, enjoy listening to my stories. He also Özal was born into a family of civil used to draw my attention to his cre- servants. Having been born in a rel- dentials as somewhat of a “rebel” and atively urban setting in Malatya, he take pride in his leading role in pro- resided in various small towns like tests during Field Marshal Fevzi Çak- Bilecik-Söğüt and Silifke during his mak’s funeral in 1948. father’s service. He spent his early adulthood in provincial centers like That is to say: by the 1990s, left- Mardin and Konya, where he fin- wing and right-wing politics did ished middle school, and in Kayseri not mean much to Turgut Özal. His 30 Insight Turkey TURGUT ÖZAL TWENTY YEARS AFTER: THE MAN AND THE POLITICIAN main concern were to innovate, to on June 4-7, 1992 manifested these change (both oneself and others), to ideals in their clearest form. Fur- challenge and break the taboos and thermore, Özal attributed particular therefore be unconventional, to have importance to this address as the the courage to revolt and to be skillful event marked his first public appear- at it.