Senior officials, his family, supporters and politicians paid tribute on Thursday to Turgut Özal, Türkiye’s eighth president, who died on April 17, 1993.
Özal, credited with major reforms in the 1980s, died at the age of 65, reportedly from a heart attack, though the mystery over the exact cause of his demise prevails amid claims of his family that the president might have been poisoned.
On the occasion of the anniversary of his death, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz was among the names visiting the president’s grave in Istanbul, near the grave of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, another legendary politician who was a victim of a military coup in 1960.
“Özal and Menderes were statesmen who earned the title of ‘man of the nation,’” Yılmaz told the assembly. “This does not happen easily. When you serve the nation and carry the state further, you earn an unshakable place in the hearts of your people.”
He praised the “great efforts” made by both politicians in the “struggle for development and democracy.”
“Today, we continue this struggle. By strengthening our national unity, we will keep working to bring Türkiye to higher democratic and development standards befitting the legacy left by the late Turgut Özal and the late Menderes,” Yılmaz said.
Born into a middle-class family in the eastern Turkish province of Malatya, Özal studied in the United States and entered politics in 1977.
In 1980, he was elected as the eighth president of the Republic of Türkiye, succeeding junta leader Kenan Evren.
As president, he turned his attention to resolving the terrorism plaguing the country since the 1980s and his “civilian” approach to the issue, fought by the military and police, helped a cessation of the PKK’s attacks for a brief time.
Özal, who survived an assassination attempt in 1988, died in his presidential residence after his return from a five-country trip. His family has repeatedly called for an investigation into his death, but most investigations ended up inconclusive. Most recently, he was exhumed in 2012 after his son Ahmet claimed he was “murdered.” Forensic experts confirmed traces of toxic elements in his body, but his exact cause of death could not be defined.