Mesut Yilmaz

Mesut Yilmaz (1947- ), Turkish politician, Prime Minister of Turkey (1991, 1996, 1997-1998). Born in İstanbul, Yilmaz was educated at the İstanbul High School for Boys and the University of Ankara, continuing his study of economics at the University of Cologne. He worked in business from 1975 until 1983, when he was one of the founders of the Motherland Party and was elected as its deputy from Rize in the 1983 general elections. He served under Turgut Özal as minister of information, and in 1986 became minister of culture and tourism. After the 1987 general election, he served as Özal’s foreign minister, but resigned in 1990.

Yilmaz formed a government that held office briefly between June and November 1991. He then led the main parliamentary opposition until March 1996, when he led the Motherland Party into coalition with Tansu Çiller and the True Path Party. Under the coalition terms, he became prime minister, but rivalry within the coalition culminated in Çiller forcing his resignation in June with the help of the Islamist Necmettin Erbakan. Growing opposition to Erbakan’s Islamic regime led to Yilmaz’s return to office in June 1997, with backing from Turkey’s powerful military establishment. Once back in power, Yilmaz pursued policies favouring secular government and against Kurdish separatists. His failure to persuade the European Union (EU) to consider Turkey as a candidate for eventual membership, confirmed by repeated diplomatic rebuffs in December 1997 and May 1998, led to a souring of Turkish-EU relations. Relations worsened in the autumn of 1998 after Italy refused to extradite a Kurdish separatist leader to Turkey. In November 1998 Yilmaz and his government resigned after losing a parliamentary vote of confidence, following revelations that he had helped a businessman with links to organized crime to buy a state-owned bank.

He was appointed deputy prime minister with responsibility for relations with the EU by Bülent Ecevit in July 2000, and in March 2001 his programme to prepare Turkey for membership, which requires the implementation of 89 new laws and also tackles the thorny problem of Kurdish rights, was approved by the government. Like all the parties of the coalition government, the Motherland Party did disastrously in the election of November 2002, securing only 5 per cent of the vote. As a consequence, Yilmaz resigned his leadership of the party.