ABSTRACT
Turgut Ozal was a technician, economist and civil servant who became a politician. He introduced the export-led economic reforms which resulted in Turkey's explosive development in the 1980s. With the return to civil government in 1983 Ozal was permitted to take part in the elections to parliament with his new-formed Motherland party, ANAP. In foreign policy he continued and reaffirmed Turkey's Western orientation, as illustrated by the application for membership of the EU and the prowestern position he took during the Gulf War. His policy aimed without doubt to confirm parliamentary democracy and to the extent that he tampered with the rules of the game it was in order to further his own wielding of power and not to increase the influence of religious dignitaries. But at the same time the Ozal era was a time of religious renaissance. The focus of Ozal's politics was on the economic sector, on bold measures to integrate Turkey quickly into world trade.
