Dispensing with tradition? Turkish politics and international society during the Özal decade, 1983-93

Middle Eastern Studies

Volumn 37, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 72-88

  Aral, Berdal ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0041869482     PISSN: 00263206     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/714004360     Document Type: Review

References (83)

1. Mehmet Gönlübol and Haluk Ülman, Olaylarla Türk Diş Politikasi 8th edition (Ankara: Siyasal Kitabevi, 1993), pp.191-209.
2. At the time, pro-Islamic parties were banned in Turkey.
3. Philip Robins, Turkey and the Middle East (London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1991), pp.24-279.
4. Soon alter his deposition, he was hanged, alongside his Minister of Finance and Minister of Foreign Affairs, for, inter alia, giving too much concessions to the (Islamic) 'reactionary elements'.
5. Yavuz Gökmen, Özal Yaşasaydi (Had Özal lived) (Ankara: Verso Yayincilik, 1994), pp.300-1.
6. Özal became president in 1989 upon his election by the parliament for a seven-year term.
7. Ahmet Altan, in Osman Özsoy, Ünlülerin Turgut Özal'la Hatiralan (Recollections of the Famous with Turgut Özal) (Istanbul: Türdav, 1994), p.144. On this rather paradoxical position, see the interview with Cengiz Çandar, a well-known Turkish journalist and an unofficial adviser to Özal, conducted soon after Özal's death, in Metin Sever and Cem Dizdar (interviewers), İkinci Cumhuriyet Tartişmalari (The Discussions on the Second Republic) (Ankara: Başak Yayinlari, 1993), pp.91-114.
8. Ahmet Altan, in Osman Özsoy, Ünlülerin Turgut Özal'la Hatiralan (Recollections of the Famous with Turgut Özal) (Istanbul: Türdav, 1994), p.144. On this rather paradoxical position, see the interview with Cengiz Çandar, a well-known Turkish journalist and an unofficial adviser to Özal, conducted soon after Özal's death, in Metin Sever and Cem Dizdar (interviewers), İkinci Cumhuriyet Tartişmalari (The Discussions on the Second Republic) (Ankara: Başak Yayinlari, 1993), pp.91-114.
9. Abdurrahman Dilipak, in Özsoy, ibid., p.207.
10. See for instance his speech during the Third Economic Congress of İznir on 4 June 1992, in İkinci Cumhuriyet Tartişmalari, 15-31.
11. Ramazan Gözen, 'Turgut Özal and Turkish Foreign Policy: Style and Vision', Foreign Policy, Vol.20, Nos.3-4 (1996), pp.69-101, 73. Especially during his presidency, in the course of his active involvement in foreign policy, Özal tended to bypass the division of power as envisioned under the Turkish Constitution. He similarly disregarded the bureaucratic mechanisms which he saw as a stumbling bloc in decision-making. However his attitude frequently caused strains in the government. His exaggerated statements about Turkey's readiness to accept some one million Turks fleeing from Bulgaria in 1989 on account of the Bulgarian policy of forcible assimilation allegedly resulted in the resignation of the Foreign Minister in protest. (Ibid. pp.71-2).
12. Ramazan Gözen, 'Turgut Özal and Turkish Foreign Policy: Style and Vision', Foreign Policy, Vol.20, Nos.3-4 (1996), pp.69-101, 73. Especially during his presidency, in the course of his active involvement in foreign policy, Özal tended to bypass the division of power as envisioned under the Turkish Constitution. He similarly disregarded the bureaucratic mechanisms which he saw as a stumbling bloc in decision-making. However his attitude frequently caused strains in the government. His exaggerated statements about Turkey's readiness to accept some one million Turks fleeing from Bulgaria in 1989 on account of the Bulgarian policy of forcible assimilation allegedly resulted in the resignation of the Foreign Minister in protest. (Ibid. pp.71-2).
13. Part of his speech in the Third Economic Congress of İzmir, in 2. Cumhuriyet Tartişmalari, pp.28-9.
14. Sevinç Çokum, in Özsoy, Ünlülerin p.163.
15. Mehmet Altan, in 2, Cumhuriyet Tartişmalari, pp.33-59, 56-7.
16. Cengiz Çandar, in Özsoy, Ülülerin, pp.140-4.
17. See, for instance, Taha Parla, Türkiye'nin Siyasal Rejimi: 1980-1989 (The Political Regime of Turkey: 1980-1989) (İstanbul: Onur Yayinlari, 1993), p.220.
18. Ibid.
19. Gökmen, Özal Yaşasaydi, p.301.
20. Ufuk Güldemir, Texas-Malatya, second edition (İstanbul: Tekin Yayinlari, 1992), p.360).
21. Gökmen, Özal Yaşasaydi, p.235.
22. Gözen, 'Turgut Özal', p.77.
23. Ibid., pp.78-9. Not unexpectedly, Özal played an active role in the Islamic Conference Organization (founded in 1969). During his premiership, Turkey held a special status in the Standing Committee for the Economic and Commercial Co-operation of this organization.
24. Ibid., p.81.
25. Ibid., p.82. Indeed most of Özal's visionary designs vis-à-vis the Middle East never materialized for a number of reasons. First, the animosities in the Middle East (first and foremost the 'Arab-Israeli conflict') were too deep to overcome through economic cooperation. Secondly, most of the Middle Eastern countries were too dependent on US and the EEC countries to forge close economic links among themselves (ibid., p.91).
26. Sabri Sayari, 'Turkey: The Changing European Security Environment and the Gulf Crisis', The Middle East Journal, Vol.46, No.1 (Winter 1992), p.18.
27. According to Gözen, the military's apparent docility towards Özal was partly due to his resignation to the fact that the security matters were the exclusive realm of the military. Özal was discreet enough not to interfere with the 'military's business' (Gözen, 'Turgut Özal', p.73), as he was all too aware that the only challenge to his authority could come from the army, as the iron fist of the official ideology.
28. Güldemir, Texas-Malatya, p.97.
29. See, for instance, the article entitled 'An Ally Deserves Better', Time, 28 Jan. 1991, p.63. Similar observations are made by Ömer Laçiner and Tanil Bora, 'Türki Cumhuriyetler ve Türkiye: İkinci Vizyon' (Turkic Republics and Turkey: The Second Vision), Birikim, No.37 (May 1992), 7-16, p.16; Philip Robins, 'Between Sentiment and Self-interest: Turkey's Policy Toward Azerbaijan and the Central Asian States', The Middle East Journal, Vol.47, No.4 (Autumn 1993), p.601.
30. See, for instance, the article entitled 'An Ally Deserves Better', Time, 28 Jan. 1991, p.63. Similar observations are made by Ömer Laçiner and Tanil Bora, 'Türki Cumhuriyetler ve Türkiye: İkinci Vizyon' (Turkic Republics and Turkey: The Second Vision), Birikim, No.37 (May 1992), 7-16, p.16; Philip Robins, 'Between Sentiment and Self-interest: Turkey's Policy Toward Azerbaijan and the Central Asian States', The Middle East Journal, Vol.47, No.4 (Autumn 1993), p.601.
31. See, for instance, the article entitled 'An Ally Deserves Better', Time, 28 Jan. 1991, p.63. Similar observations are made by Ömer Laçiner and Tanil Bora, 'Türki Cumhuriyetler ve Türkiye: İkinci Vizyon' (Turkic Republics and Turkey: The Second Vision), Birikim, No.37 (May 1992), 7-16, p.16; Philip Robins, 'Between Sentiment and Self-interest: Turkey's Policy Toward Azerbaijan and the Central Asian States', The Middle East Journal, Vol.47, No.4 (Autumn 1993), p.601.
32. 'Commission Opinion on Turkey's Request for Accession to the Community', Brussels, 20 Dec. 1989, SEC(89) 2290 final/2.
33. Robins, 'Between Sentiment', p.595.
34. Sayari, 'Turkey', p.17.
35. Cengiz Çandar, Nokta, 25 Nisan-1 Mayis 1993, Sayi 18, Özel Ek, 31-32.
36. Ibid.
37. Atilla Eralp, 'The Politics of Turkish Development Strategies', Andrew Finkel and Nükhet Sirman (eds.), Turkish State, Turkish Society (London and New York: Routledge, 1990), pp.219-58, p.249.
38. İbsan Duran Daǧi, 'Turkey in the 1990s: Foreign Policy, Human Rights, and the Search for a New Identity', Mediterranean Quarterly, Vol.4, No.4 (Fall 1993), p.64.
39. Resolution 661, International Legal Materials, 1990, pp.1325-7.
40. Resolution 678, International Legal Materials, 1990, p.1565.
41. Hulki Cevizoǧlu, Körfez Savaşi ve Özal Diplomasisi (İstanbul: Form Yayinlari, 1991), p.76.
42. Ibid., p.38.
43. Gökmen, Özal Yaşasaydi, p.93. The Council of the League of Nations handed over these two regions, also claimed by Turkey, to British mandated Iraq in 1925, to which Turkey reluctantly consented.
44. Ibid., p.100. It must he noted that, at the time, the SC resolution which authorized the use of force against Iraq had not yet been adopted. Throughout the crisis, Özal was continuously blamed by the opposition for harbouring unrealistic ambitions and for his willingness to join the war on the side of the US (Cevizoǧlu. p.39). However, after the war, Özal opposed the possibility of the disintegration of Iraq as he came to realize that Turkey would not be among the beneficiaries of such an eventuality. Indeed he became aware that the emergence of a Kurdish state in the north of Iraq would only exacerbate Turkey's own Kurdish problem. (Sayari, 'Turkey', p.141).
45. Andrew Mango, Turkey, the Challenges of a New Role (London: Praeger, 1994), p.111.
46. Sayari, 'Turkey', p.16.
47. Cevizoǧlu, p.86.
48. Bruce R. Kuniholm, 'Turkey and the West', Foreign Affairs, Vol.70 No.2 (Spring 1991), pp.36-7.
49. Kutlay Doǧan, Turgut Özal Betgeseli (The Turgut Özal File) (Ankara: Türk Haberler Ajansi. 1994), pp.318-19.
50. In Turkish foreign policy discourse, Greeks and Armenians are portrayed as the 'ardent enemies' of Turkey.
51. Güldemir, Texas-Malatya, pp.95-6.
52. Kuniholm, 'Turkey and the West', pp.34-8.
53. Sayari, 'Turkey', p.19.
54. Newspot, 7 March 1991.
55. George J. Church, 'Across the Great Divide', Time, Vol.140, No.16, 19 Oct. 1992, p.35.
56. The Economist, 25 Dec.-8 Jan. 1993, p.82.
57. Robins, 'Between Sentiment', p.593.
58. Keesing's Contemporary Archives, 1992, p.38792. At least initially, Itan was inclined to see the ECO as an incipient model of an Islamic common market, while Turkey laid emphasis on its economic side.
59. Keesing's Contemporary Archives, Reference Supplement, 1992, p.R.128.
60. The Washington Post, 24 Feb. 1993.
61. Suat Bilge, 'Baǧimsiz Devletler Topluluǧu ve Türkiye' (The Commonwealth of Independent States and Turkey), Avrasya Etüdleri, Vol.1, No.4 (Winter 1995), p.9 .
62. Robins, 'Between Sentiment', 1993, p.609.
63. Part of his speech can be found in Bilge, 'Bagimsiz Devletler', p.89. 'BBC Summary of World Broadcasts', Middle East, 2 Nov. 1992.
64. Ibid., p.90.
65. Laçiner and Bora, 'Türki Cumhuriyetler', pp.12-14.
66. On the (partial) disillusionment of the parties see, Robins, 'Between Sentiment', 1993, pp.593-5. Robins notes that, after gaining independence, these republics, rather than asking for Turkey's mediation, wanted to establish direct economic links wilh the West (p.593).
67. Human Rights Law Journal, Vol.11, Nos.3-4 (1990), pp.456-8.
68. Keesing's Contemporary Archives, Vol.38, 1992. Reference Supplement, p.R.127. However Özal's hold initiatives on the Kurdish problem were confronted with strong objections, even from factions of his own party: Ömer Laçiner, 'Geçiş Sürecinde Özal ve ANAP' (Özal and the Motherland Party intime of Transition), Birikim, April 1991, No.24, 3-7, pp.6-7.
69. Keesing's Contemporary Archives, Vol.38, 1992. Reference Supplement, p.R.127. However Özal's hold initiatives on the Kurdish problem were confronted with strong objections, even from factions of his own party: Ömer Laçiner, 'Geçiş Sürecinde Özal ve ANAP' (Özal and the Motherland Party intime of Transition), Birikim, April 1991, No.24, 3-7, pp.6-7.
70. Ibid.
71. Among Turkish politicians, he was the only hope of Kurdish rights activists for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem (Çandar, in Özsoy, Ünlülerin, p.233 .
72. See the extensive interview of Mustafa Çalik with Özal, Türkiye Güalüǧü. No. 19 (Summer 1992), pp.5-23.
73. 'Commission Opinion on...' (note 28).
74. Keesing's Contemporary Archives, April 1991, p.38159.
75. Doḡan, Turgut Özal Belgeseli, p.315.
76. Sayari, 'Turkey', p.18.
77. The membership, inter alia, requires common customs policies among EEC members towards third countries. Besides the issues such as common customs tariffs, in case of membership. Turkey will he barred from special economic arrangements with non-member states without the prior authorisation of the EEC.
78. Yilmaz Öztuna, in Özsoy, Ünlülerin, p.247.
79. Çandar, in ibid., p.233.
80. Hasan Cemal, in ibid., p.220.
81. Gökmen, Ôzal Yaşasaydi, p.51. Özal expressed this view on numerous occasions. See for instance his opening speech in the Third Ecoonomic Congress of İzmir. 4 June 1992, in Cumhurbaşkam Turgut Özal'n IIII. İzmir İktisat Kongresindeki Konuşmalari (Ankara: Başbabanlik, 1992); Cumhurbaşkam Turgut Özal'in '21. Asir Türkiye'nin ve Türklerin Asri Olacaktir' Konulu Konuşmalari. Bursa-Çelik Palas, 22 Mayis 1991 (Ankara. Başbakanlik, 1991).
82. Gökmen, Ôzal Yaşasaydi, p.51. Özal expressed this view on numerous occasions. See for instance his opening speech in the Third Ecoonomic Congress of İzmir. 4 June 1992, in Cumhurbaşkam Turgut Özal'n IIII. İzmir İktisat Kongresindeki Konuşmalari (Ankara: Başbabanlik, 1992); Cumhurbaşkam Turgut Özal'in '21. Asir Türkiye'nin ve Türklerin Asri Olacaktir' Konulu Konuşmalari. Bursa-Çelik Palas, 22 Mayis 1991 (Ankara. Başbakanlik, 1991).
83. Gökmen, Ôzal Yaşasaydi, p.51. Özal expressed this view on numerous occasions. See for instance his opening speech in the Third Ecoonomic Congress of İzmir. 4 June 1992, in Cumhurbaşkam Turgut Özal'n IIII. İzmir İktisat Kongresindeki Konuşmalari (Ankara: Başbabanlik, 1992); Cumhurbaşkam Turgut Özal'in '21. Asir Türkiye'nin ve Türklerin Asri Olacaktir' Konulu Konuşmalari. Bursa-Çelik Palas, 22 Mayis 1991 (Ankara. Başbakanlik, 1991).