Word: ozal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When U.S. troops invaded Panama in December 1989, the Soviet Foreign Ministry read its condemnation to a CNN crew before passing it through diplomatic channels. During the buildup to the gulf war, Turkish President Turgut Ozal was watching a CNN telecast of a press conference and heard a reporter ask Bush if Ozal would cut off an oil pipeline into Iraq. Bush said he was about to ask Ozal that very question. Moments later, when the telephone rang, Ozal was able to tell Bush that he was expecting the call...
...Turks abandoned Ozal for an older-model politician. For the nominal winner, Suleyman Demirel, 67, the right-wing leader of the True Path Party, victory was sweet revenge against a political enemy whom he had long since sworn to oust from office. But with only about 27% of the vote, Demirel was carefully looking for partners with whom to form a fragile coalition. Demirel, who served six times as Prime Minister during the 1960s and '70s, was twice removed from office by the armed forces. This time, in addition to high % inflation, he inherits a budget deficit of $6 billion...
...Ozal leaves behind him a bequest that can only benefit Demirel: a national consensus. Says Hasan Cemal, editor of one of Turkey's most influential newspapers, Cumhuriyet: "The clock cannot be turned back. The multiparty democratic system is here to stay. All parties except the fundamentalists make joining the European Community their No. 1 priority. We are on the right track." The same consensus applies to the economy. Whatever Demirel's reservations about the dangers of unbridled capitalism and his past inclination to subsidize state industries, he will have little choice but to follow in the path of Ozal...
More divisive, and perhaps most serious of all, is the war with Kurdish separatists that is spreading in the southeastern part of the country, where nearly half of Turkey's 12 million Kurds live. Ozal tried to start a dialogue with the Kurds. Demirel is expected to take a tougher stand. Fighting has already crossed the border into Iraq. Over the weekend, Turkish planes bombed Iraqi areas from which Kurdish guerrillas staged a raid into Turkey that killed 17 soldiers. The Kurdish issue could conceivably prevent Demirel from forming a new government with the Social Democratic Populist Party, which came...
...issues, the narrowness of Demirel's victory will limit his mandate. His central campaign promise was to oust Ozal from the presidency immediately, instead of waiting until 1996, by changing the constitution. But few political leaders would welcome a constitutional crisis when Turkey is seeking to show the European Community and its NATO allies that it is a stable, reliable partner. Says a Western diplomat in Ankara: "Demirel has a mandate not to be like Ozal -- but not to get rid of him either...