Questioning Özal Again

Who is Turgut Özal?

Turgut Özal, a graduate of Istanbul Technical University, worked as an engineer and administrator in the Electrical Works Survey Administration. He contributed to the establishment of the State Planning Organization and served as the Undersecretary of this organization between 1967-1971. He also chaired the Economic Coordination Board, the Money and Credit Board and the EEC Coordination Board.

He served as a consultant to the World Bank in 1971-1973. After returning to Turkey, he worked in various industrial establishments and was appointed as the Undersecretary of the Prime Ministry towards the end of 1979. He played an important role in the preparation of the large-scale program known as the January 24 Decisions, which aimed to liberalize the Turkish economy.

His Political Life:

He was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for economic affairs in the government established after the military intervention of 12 September 1980. The Motherland Party, which he founded, won the 1983 general elections and thus became the 19th Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey.

He served as the Eighth President from 9 November 1989 to 17 April 1993. He died while on duty as a result of an illness he suffered.

It is necessary to re-examine what Özal did and what he wanted to do:

• We should question why he founded a party in 1982 after the 1980 coup and entered politics and clashed with the established order.
• We should question why it is trying to increase the rate of university enrollment in Turkey above 40% by saying the South Korean model.
• We should question why he is trying to sell Türk Telekom. Why did he ask for $40 billion? To reset all of Turkey's $39 billion debt and leave 1 billion dollars in our safe?
• We should question why he tried to send the first Turkish satellite into space by selling the cement factories to the French and shooting them with his own gun. Was his aim to join the powers that have satellites in space and that would sign the orbital sharing agreement? Was the aim of obtaining 5 orbits with this contract and leasing two of them to the Germans and earning Turkey 3.5 billion dollars in 35 years?
• Why did he support Asil Nadir? Was the aim to provide Vestel, one of our most important brands after THY, with more platforms than Philips in Silicon Valley? Why did Asil Nadir try to strengthen Poly Pack International, the world's largest cold storage and food distribution company? Was his aim to distribute the products to be produced in the GAP to the whole world without delay?
• Why did the President of Kazakhstan gift Nazarbayev 50 acres of farm in Antalya? Why did Nazarbayev take a vacation in Antalya every summer and establish a horse farm? Was his intention to pave the way for Turkey to use the Baykonur Cosmodrome in space studies?
• It is really necessary to question, why did the Bulgarian Dictator send 2 million dollars to Todor Jivkov? Did he want to remove Naim's quota to participate in the Olympics as soon as possible? In Sakıp Sabancı's words, was his aim to promote Turkey worth 5 billion dollars through Naim?
• Why did he send 50 million dollars to the Croats for the establishment of the Bosnian Croat Federation? Was his aim to strengthen the Bosniaks, the outpost of Turkish power in Europe?
• Why didn't he continue the "standby" agreements with the IMF? Did he see this as an obstacle to our independence?
• Why did he try to save Turkey from the burden of convertible deposits? How many powerhouses has it deprived of this important rant? We must question!
• Why did he try to make our investments without borrowing from outside and why did he continue the GAP?
• Why did he try to start direct flights to Japan? How did he know that after the 2000s, the Japanese would send more than 10% of the population abroad to feed their people?
• Why did he bring Japanese capital to Turkey through the Sabancı family and TEMSA? Didn't he know that this would bring blood and tears to Turkey, as in the case of Özdemir Sabancı?
• Why did he turn his face towards the Central Asian Turkic Republics by keeping a distance from the Arabs under our noses? Why did he say that the next century will be the Turkish century? Why did he think like US President Clinton? Why did he think like George Friedman? And why was he so combative when he knew he was going to be killed?

Conclusion:

The truth we want to express here is this: Whether we like it or not, Özal is a person, a personality, who has held many key state positions in this country, served as prime minister and president, and is now a historical figure. It is evaluated that it is necessary to question why he wants to do the things he wants to do, what the things done cost Turkey, what causes things to change for the better and what to get worse, from a causal perspective and from an objective point of view. For this reason, it is believed that it would be beneficial to make this questioning on Özal's 30th anniversary (in 2023) and to reflect the lessons learned in our politics and bureaucracy.