Ciller to Form New Turkish Government

ANKARA, Turkey — President Suleyman De mirel on Monday asked economist Tansu Ciller to form a new government, putting her in line to become Turkey’s first woman prime minister.

Ciller, 47, the former state minister in charge of the economy, was elected Sunday as leader of the True Path Party, the senior partner in the governing center-right coalition, assuring her nomination as prime minister-designate.

She will succeed Demirel, a seven-time premier who was elected to the largely ceremonial presidency last month after the death of Turgut Ozal.

Ciller will be the third woman to head a predominantly Muslim country. The first two were former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Khaleda Zia, the prime minister of Bangladesh.

Ciller won the party leadership with the support of the rank and file, who longed for change and rejuvenation.

In doing so, she humiliated the conservative Establishment, including Demirel, who was widely reported to have backed his interior minister, Ismet Sezgin, against Ciller, despite assurances of neutrality.

Ciller, who received her master’s degree from the University of Connecticut and studied at Yale University, has promised to speed up economic reforms and strengthen ties with the European Community.

She has said her ties with the president would be “constitutional,” indicating she wouldn’t allow Demirel to cast a shadow on her authority.

Ciller said she will soon open talks with the government-partner Social Democratic Populist Party for a renewed coalition alignment.

Erdal Inonu, the senior Social Democratic leader, will continue to hold the post of acting prime minister until Ciller gets a parliamentary vote of confidence for her new government. No date has been set for the vote.

“It is going to be a new government, even if it is going to be between the same partners,” Ciller told a news conference after her nomination, hinting at a shake-up.

The True Path has 182 deputies in the 450-member Parliament and the Social Democrats have 54, giving the coalition a not-too-solid majority.

Although she has pledged to speed up economic reforms, Ciller has been at odds with key economic bureaucrats. She also has to cope with chronic inflation, running at 65% annually.