GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
Parliament
Turkey is a parliamentary democracy. The
Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA), elected by all citizens over 19 years of age, is
the direct descendant of the congress assembled by Atatürk during the War of Independence
to act as the legitimate voice of the Turkish people in place of the sultan.
President & Prime Minister
The president, elected by the TGNA from among
its members, serves for one sevenyear term and is supposed to be `above politics', and
symbolise the nation. He or she is the head of state, with important executive powers and
responsibilities. The true head of government, who decides its policies and directions, is
the prime minister. However, recent presidents (Özal and Demirel) have informally
expanded the powers of the presidential office and have been accused at times of having
used the office with partisan effect.
The prime minister is appointed by the
president to form a government, and thus is almost always the head of the majority party,
or of a likely coalition.
The judiciary, though theoretically
independent, has in many instances been influenced by current government policies.
Political Parties
Though the Turks are firm believers in
democracy, the tradition of popular rule and responsibility is relatively short. Real
multiparty democracy came into being only after WWII (compared to England's tradition of
almost 800 ycars). Turkish democracy has had its ups and downs.
Mid-Century
Atatürk's Republican People's Party (CHP)
enjoyed one-party rule until after WWII, when multi-party democracy became a reality. In
the first elections the CHP lost out to the right-wing Democratic Party (DP), which
attempted to control the government as closely as the CHP had before the war by grabbing
extra-constitutional power. The Turkish arıned forces, entrusted by Atatürk's legacy as
guarantors of the Turkish constitution, intervened.
After the milirary intervention of 1960, the
Democratic Partv was banned, but its party faithful simply formed a successor, the
similarly centre-right Justice Party (AP), and did as well in the elections against the
centreleft CHP.
1990s
In the hotly contested elections of February
1992 ANAP gained only about a third of the vote, losing the plurality to the durable
Süleyman Demirel, back from political exclusion, and his DYP. The centre-right True Path
formed an unlikely coalition with the centre-left SHP under Professor Erdal İnönü (son
of general, prime minister and president, the late İsmet İnönü) to form a
government.Demirel brought a new vigour to the government after almost a decade of
Motherland leadership.
With Ozal's untimely death due to heart
disease in April 1993, Demirel was elected to be the ninth president of the Turkish
Republic. In June 1993, President Demirel asked Professor Tansu Çiller, the economics
minister, to form a government, thereby making her Turkey's first female prime minister,
an anomaly in a parliament which is overwhelmingly male.
Recent Years
Prime Minister Çiller earned high marks from
intemational bankers for making progress in privatising Turkey's money-losing state
enterprises, leftovers from the statist policies of Atatürk of 60 yeats ago. Despite her
modest progress in this, the economy worsened as the government seemed to lack any strong,
clearly defined economic plan-and it continued to run huge deficits. Turkey's commercial,
industrial, agricultural and tourism sectors boomed producing record profits, but the lira
continued to slide in a constant devaluation against harder currencies.
In the summer of 1995 Çiller's government
lost a vote of confidence in parliament when its coalition partner, upset over the
government's unwillingness to raise the minimum wage, withdrew. September and October were
one long political crisis as Çiller, now caretaker, attempted to form a new government,
ultimately forming a new coalition with Mr Deniz Baykal of the Republican Peoples' Party
(CHP) as foreign minister and deputy prime minister to take the country to early
elections.
The elections of 24 December 1995 were a
wake-up call against politics as usual: the upstart religious-right Welfare Party (RP) won
a plurality of 23%, which was seen as a protest vote against the ineffective policies and
tedious political wrangles of the mainstream Motherland Party (20%) and Çiller's True
Path Party (19%). Prof Necmettin Erbakan, the RP leader, was given the mandate to form a
coalition, but neither of the other big parties would join him.
In March 1996, President Demirel gave the nod
to caretaker prime minister Çiller, who formed a coalition with erstwhile bitter
political rival Mesut Yilmaz of Motherland. Yılmaz and Çiller plan to alternate in the
prime ministership, with Yılmaz taking the office for the first year, Çiller for the
following two years, then Yılmaz again for one year, and after that someone else, should
the coalition go to full term.
ECONOMY
Turkey has a strong agricultural base to its
economy, being among the handful of countries which are net exporters of food. Wheat,
cotton, sugar beet, sunflowers, hazelnuts, tobacco, fruit and vegetables are abundant.
Sheep are the main livestock, and Turkey is the biggest wool producer in Europe.
However, manufactured goods now dominate
exports and much of the economy. Turkey builds motor vehicles, appliances, consumer goods
and large engineering projects, and exports them throughout the region. In the first half
of 1995, Turkey's exports grew by 29.5%, giving it the fourthhighest export growth rate in
the world.
However, the economy is still dragged down by
the heavy weight of the`state economic enterprises' (KlTs), governmentcontrolled
corporations subject to subsidies, political intluence, payroll-padding and corruption. In
1994, six of the 10 largest corporations were KITs, refining and selling petroleum
products and petrochemicals; generating and distributing electricity; making and selling
salt, tobacco products and alcoholic beverages; and refining and marketing sugar. The
government is also involved in the marketing of agricultural products including grain,
hazelnuts and tea; in coal and steel production; in transportation and broadcasting and
many other industries.
Tourism is now among the most important
sectors of the Turkish economy, bringing in billions of dollars in foreign currency
eamings. In 1995, tourism increased 20% from already-high 1994 levels as almost eight
million visitors came to Turkey - over one million in August alone.
There is still a large Turkish workforce in
the industries of Europe, particularly those of Germany, which sends home remittances.
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