Report Calls for Probe Into Death of Turkish President

By Ayla Albayrak

The death of Turkey’s President Turgut Ozal in 1993 was “suspicious” and should be properly investigated, according to a report published Wednesday by Turkey’s presidential office.

The State Supervisory Council, or DDK, which answers to Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul, said in its report that no autopsy or sufficient investigation was carried out into the sudden passing of Mr. Ozal, whose death almost 20 years ago was attributed to heart failure.

“The sudden death of a president in office is always a ‘suspicious’ death,” said the 600-page-plus report, of which the 44-page conclusion was published on the Turkish president’s website. It said the fact that no autopsy was conducted and no evidence was collected in the presidential residence “could be illustrated as an eclipse of reason.”

The report recommended that Mr. Ozal’s grave be opened for investigation, as modern technology could determine whether he may have been poisoned. In addition, a wisp of Mr. Ozal’s hair, kept by the widowed First Lady, Semra Ozal, could be used to aid any investigation.

The Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Ankara and Mr. Gul commissioned the report.

Over the years, rumors have persisted that Mr. Ozal, a controversial but popular leader, was murdered by poisoning. In recent years, his wife and other family members have talked publicly about their suspicions that Mr. Ozal died of unnatural causes. The report notes that Mr. Ozal survived an assassination attempt in 1988.

The circumstances in which the president died remain unclear. There has been speculation over whether he had been exercising too hard the day of his death, or fallen suddenly without apparent reason, as his wife recalls.

The DDK report blames the judiciary, state institutions and Mr. Ozal’s family for not pushing for an autopsy after the death, noting that according to many witnesses, Mrs. Ozal strongly resisted “cutting her husband.”

Mr. Ozal was seriously overweight and suffering from hypertension, and underwent bypass surgery in the U.S. in 1987. His doctor recalled later in a Turkish documentary that without the operation, Mr. Ozal could have died of a heart attack within a year.

Mr. Ozal was one of modern Turkey’s most prominent and longest-serving leaders. He was prime minister for six consecutive years before being elected President in 1989. History records him as having liberalized Turkey’s economy and initiated privatization programs, while helping to develop civil democracy in the aftermath of the country’s 1980 military coup.

Mr. Ozal also gained enemies by touching on some topics considered taboo after the coup, such as the rights of Turkey’s Kurdish minority. He was of Kurdish origin himself. He promoted non-military measures to end the armed campaign by Kurdish rebels in Turkey’s southeast, which continues today and is estimated to have claimed some 40,000 lives.

via Report Calls for Probe Into Death of Turkish President – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.