:: MEDEA ::

Tansu Ciller was born in 1946 in Istanbul and was educated in an American institution in Istanbul then in the United States. She then taught Economics in several American and Turkish universities and was adviser to the World Bank. She has written a number of books on the Turkish economy.

Her political career started in 1990 when she became the assistant of Süleyman Demirel, the chairman of the Correct Way Party (the right-wing DYP). She contributed to the rejuvenation of this party by giving it a new dynamic image. She was appointed Economy Minister of State in November 1991 and was elected in June 1993 at the head of the DYP (when Demirel became Head of State after President Turgut Özal's death). While the coalition government formed in November 1991 between the DYP and the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) continued, she became Prime Minister (as she was head of the largest parliamentary group). She is the first woman to become Prime Minister in Turkey.

In the anticipated legislative elections of December 1995, Tansu Ciller's party lost the majority in Parliament to Necmettin Erbakan's Welfare Party (Refah islamist party). After an unsuccessful attempt of a coalition government with her rival Mesut Yilmaz (head of the right-wing Motherland Party, ANAP), she concluded an agreement with Necmettin Erbakan - although she is attached to secular values - which establishes for the first time in modern Turkish history the alternating nomination for the post of Prime Minister. She was Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and took over the Prime Ministership from him on 18 June 1997, until the Erbakan-Ciller government lost its majority and was replaced by a new one headed by Mesut Yilmaz in July 1997.

As a liberal and pro-Western politician, she firmly advocates a close relationship between Turkey and the European Union.