congressional_record: CREC-1994-12-20-pt1-PgS24
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| CREC-1994-12-20-pt1-PgS24 | 1994-12-20 | 103 | 2 | TURKEY'S CONFIDENT LEADER | SENATE | SENATE | FRONTMATTER | S | S | [{"name": "Paul Simon", "role": "speaking"}] | 140 Cong. Rec. S | Congressional Record, Volume 140 Issue 150 (Tuesday, December 20, 1994) [Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 150 (Tuesday, December 20, 1994)] [Senate] [Page S] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov] [Congressional Record: December 20, 1994] From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] TURKEY'S CONFIDENT LEADER Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, recently, Lally Weymouth had an op- ed piece in the Washington Post about Turkey's remarkable prime minister. It is a great tribute to her. The political storms are not easy to weather in Turkey, but one of the things that our friends in Turkey must understand is that an improved relationship with the United States, and much of Western Europe, is in the interest of all of us. But it is not likely to happen until Turkey faces up to the Cyprus question and the Armenia question. I recognize that is easy for a politician of the United States to say, and not easy for a political leader in Turkey to say because of the decades of emotion on these issues. But if the people in the Middle East can get together, even though it is not all smooth, and if the people in Northern Ireland can get together, then it seems to me, the Turks, the Greeks, and the Armenians ought to be able to work out a better relationship than the one they now have, and that is in the interest of all parties. I ask the Lally Weymouth column be printed in the Congressional Record. The column follows: [From the Washington Post, Nov. 23, 1994] Turkey's Confident Leader (By Lally Weymouth) Istanbul.--In a country where a radical Islamist party is growing in strength, and increasingly women are seen on the streets of major cities wearing the chador, the prime minister is a decidedly modern woman who has surprised the experts with her staying power. From the day 48-year-old Tansu Ciller came to power little over a year ago, analysts have been predicting the fall of her coalition. So far, however, she has managed to prove them wrong. It remains true, however, that virtually every move Ciller makes is controversial. Some Turks criticize her as a disorganized novice; she's an academic-turned-prime-minster. Others say she has failed to deal with Turkey's economic crisis; inflation this year is running at 116 percent, and the growth rates is negative. Yet the prime minister appears cool and unflappable as she steps out of a helicopter in Istanbul and enters her palace to talk about Turkey's problems. For one thing, Turkey's relationship with Washington has deteriorated in the post-Cold War era. Meanwhile, Ciller has many soldiers deployed fighting terrorists in the southeast of Turkey. On the domestic front, she's engaged in an effort to reschedule a by-election for some national assembly seats, a vote originally scheduled for early December. Experts have been predicting that Ciller's party wouldn't fare well in these elections, since the majority of seats at stake are located in southeast Turkey, where the fundamentalist ``Welfare Party'' is strong. Ciller, however, says confidently, ``We are the majority party in the parliament . . . and I think we'll increase that majority. . . . We're going to do much better than ANAP [the other right-of-center party.] . . . I'm secular and democratic and progressive and this is what people want.'' The central threat to Ciller's party and to all mainstream Turkish parties is the radical Islamist ``Welfare Party.'' The prime minister nevertheless plays down the fundamentalist threat, claiming that the fundamentalists have only 15 or 16 percent of the vote, Indeed, she argues that their core vote is even smaller than that; she believes that Welfare attracts a considerable number of protest voters who are reacting to Turkey's economic problems. Shouldn't her party (the True Path) merge with the other right-of-center party (the Motherland Party)--to offer voters a united front against the fundamentalists? Ciller, who has acquired a populist touch, strikes out at the Motherland Party, calling it elitist, ``the product of the military coup. They had contacts [only] with the upper class,'' says Ciller, claiming that her True Path Party ``represents the peasants and small businessmen, the artisans and free traders--the private sector.'' In the next elections, she predicts, Turkish voters will opt for one party, and ``very likely it's going to be me and my party they will choose.'' As Ciller sees it, she's faced with two major problems: an economic crisis and a terror threat. In the economic realm, she's trying to privatize the state sector: ``I'm for a free market economy. . . but we've had problems in the economy because the government sector was so big. The government is in finance, in banking, in manufacture--everywhere.'' As for terrorism, when Ciller became prime minister, the Syrian-sponsored PKK terrorists controlled large areas of southeast Turkey. Although she and other Turkish officials have not noticed any dropoff in Syrian support for the terror group, Ciller says she has used her army to regain control over much of the southeast. The prime minister says confidently that factories and schools are open again after having been closed for six years. ``Life is going back to normal. . . and I did it in one year,'' she said. ``We still have problems, but it's a big step in the right direction.'' Her government has been criticized for the harsh methods used by the army in fighting the PKK, but Ciller claims she had no choice: ``The fight was not against people living in the southeast [but] against the PKK who were killing the Kurdish and Turkish people without discrimination.'' Turning to foreign affairs, Ciller notes that Turkey was a faithful U.S. ally during the Cold War, and cooperated with the United States and its allies in prosecuting the gulf war, shutting down an oil pipeline from Iraq that had produced large revenues for Turkey, thus causing economic hardship. Recently, when Saddam marched toward Kuwait, Ciller said she told President Clinton that ``we back the U.S. 100 percent and that I would provide any help the president would ask.'' Yet she hesitates when it comes to the question of renewing ``Operation Provide Comfort''--the program started by the United States and the international community to aid the Kurds in northern Iraq. ``My people have hesitations about Provide Comfort because they feel it might help separate northern Iraq from the rest of the country,'' she said. ``We feel the territorial integrity of Iraq should be maintained.'' Ciller has endeavored to warn Washington about Russia's aggressive posture. ``We know what is going on there . . . and we cannot close our eyes to the fact . . . that there are forces within Russia who want to go back to the old empire, to the old ways. . . . Aggression should be stopped--be it in Bosnia, in Azerbaijan or Kuwait.'' Tansu Ciller is looking to the future. She plans to guide Turkey into the Customs Union of the European Union. Then, she wants Turkey to play some role in the Middle East peace process. Moreover, she wants to aid the Turkic Republics of the former Soviet Union emerge into independence. But, says the prime minister, ``we need help.'' She does; she also deserves it. ____________________ |