İsmail Cem İpekçi

İsmail Cem İpekçi (February 15 1940, Istanbul – January 24 2007, Istanbul) was a Turkish politician, journalist, statesman and former minister of foreign affairs.

Background

İsmail Cem finished high school at Robert College in İstanbul in 1959 and graduated from the Law School at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland in 1963. He earned in 1983 a master's degree in sociology of politics at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris, France. He was an exchange student with AFS in Carmel, California for one year during his high school years.

A member of one of the most prominent families in Turkey, Cem was the cousin of murdered journalist Abdi İpekçi. He was the son of Ihsan Ipekci, who was one of the pioneers of the Turkish cinema industry, as the founder and partner of Ipek Film, and several popular Istanbul movie theaters including Yeni Melek and Ipek.

İsmail Cem was an avid photographer, and held four photo exhibits, and published a book "Mevsim, Mevsim" ("Season, Season"). [cite news|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/turkish/europe/story/2007/01/070124_turkey_cem.shtml
accessdate=2008-10-10
title=İsmail Cem hayatını kaybetti
section=Avrupa
work=BBC Turkish
date=2007-01-24
language=Turkish]

Journalism

Returning home in 1963, Cem started his professional career as a journalist. He worked in some major newspapers and became editor-in-chief of "Milliyet". Between 1971-1974, he served as the chief of the Istanbul office of the Turkish Newspaper Workers Union. In 1974-1975, he acted as the general manager of the state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT). Cem's tenure as the general manager of TRT, then the only TV station in Turkey, created some controversy. The conservatives and prominent right-wing figures like future President of Turkey Süleyman Demirel used their political and social influence to remove Cem from his post in several attempts which have all proven fruitless.

Writing career

Among with his political and journalistic successes, Cem is also known as one of the ideologists of social democracy in Turkey and was counted among the prominent figures in Turkish centre-left. Cem, who advocated a moderate agenda in a time of political turmoil, wrote extensive accounts of the economic and social factors lying beneath Turkey's underdevelopment and theoretized methods for the revitalization of Turkish left. Among Cem's books are "Turkiye'de Geri Kalmışlığın Tarihi" (A History of Underdevelopment in Turkey), one of the most acclaimed books in the field of social sciences in Turkey and "Sosyal Demokrasi Nedir?, Ne Değildir?" (What is and What is not Social Democracy?), one of the first books to introduce social democracy to Turkish politics. Cem's books, characterized by their plain but informative nature, are still popular and are growing even more popular, especially in light of the current dissent against AKP's moderate Islamism and the debate of reformation in Turkish left. A more detailed bibliography of Cem's works can be found below.

Political career

He entered politics after being elected deputy of Istanbul from the Kadikoy district in the general elections held in 1987. He was re-elected in 1991 again from Istanbul and in 1995 from Kayseri. After the death of President Turgut Özal in 1993, he ran for president without success. In 1995, İsmail Cem left the Republican People's Party (CHP) and joined the Democratic Left Party (DSP). He was then appointed Minister of Culture. He served as minister of foreign affairs from June 30 1997 until July 10 2002. He was the fourth longest-serving minister of this position in Turkey.

Relations with the European Union

He negotiated candidate status for Turkey's bid to join the European Union as foreign minister.cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2123057.stm | title = Profile: Ismail Cem - supreme diplomat | work = BBC News] He was largely credited with Turkey's declaration as a full member candidate during the Helsinki summit, after much negotiation with the E.U. and a night trip by E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the then E.U. Commissioner Verheugen to Ankara to iron out the last details.

Relations with Greece

Cem and his Greek counterpart George Papandreou worked to improve Turkish-Greek relations. It is during Cem's tenure as foreign minister that a confident, albeit a step-by-step approach was taken towards a rapprochement between Turkey and Greece. The relations were actually at an all time low after the Ocalan affair, whereby Greek Foreign Minister Pangalos and some officials of the Greek Foreign Ministry were involved in hiding terrorist organization PKK leader prior to his arrest by the Turkish police. Cem and Papandreou picked up the historically hostile relationships initially starting with some confidence measures.

Later political career and illness

After a dispute with the party leader Bülent Ecevit, he resigned from the Democratic Left Party (DSP) ahead of 2002 parliamentary elections and formed the New Turkey Party (YTP) on July 20 2002 together with his former party colleague Hüsamettin Özkan. İsmail Cem was elected leader of YTP, which did not do well in the elections.

Returning from the United States, where he was due to medical treatment of cancer, he closed YTP on October 24 2004, joining the CHP. İsmail Cem was acting as the chief advisor to Deniz Baykal, the leader of CHP, and lectured in Applied Foreign Politics of Turkey at the Istanbul Bilgi University until his death. He was married to Elçin Cem, and the couple had a daughter, İpek Cem Taha, and a son, Kerim Cem.

Funeral

İsmail Cem died on January 24, 2007 in İstanbul after suffering for two years from lung cancer. He was honored with a state funeral, at which Speaker of the Parliament Bülent Arınç, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, current and former leaders of the political parties, his close friend former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, George Papandreou and Greek Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Theodoros Kasimis attended. [ [http://haber.tnn.net/haber_detay.asp?ID=1650015&Cat=ENG PAPANDREU, KASIMIS IN TURKEY FOR CEM'S FUNERAL] , Anadolu Agency, "TNN News".] He was interred at the Zincirlikuyu Cemetery. Papandreou laid on his grave a branch from the olive tree, they both had planted 2000 in Greece as a symbol of peace. [ [http://www.skyturk.tv/news.jsp?c=1&newsId=63100 Cem´in mezarında bir ZEYTİN DALI!] , "Sky Turk TV News", 26-01-2007 15:36.]

Legacy

İsmail Cem was especially admired by young people in Turkey during his time as a foreign minister. Polls indicated that young people desired to see Cem as President of Turkey.cite web | url = http://www.hri.org/news/turkey/trkpr/2000/00-01-05.trkpr.html#07 | title = 'L'EXPRESS' PRAISES ISMAIL CEM | work=HRI.org]

Bibliography

* "Türkiye'de Geri Kalmışlığın Tarihi" ("History of Under Development in Turkey"), 512 pp, Can, ISBN 975-510-791-6
* "Türkiye Üzerine Yazılar" ("Articles on Turkey")
* "12 Mart" (12th of March) (Referring to March 12^th, 1971, the date of military coup)
* "TRT'de 500 Gün" ("500 Days at TRT") (TRT is the Turkish state television)
* "Siyaset Yazıları" ("Notes about Politics")
* "Geçiş Dönemi Türkiye'si" ("Turkey in a Period of Transition")
* "Sosyal Demokrasi ya da Demokratik Sosyalizm Nedir, Ne Değildir?" ("What is, What is not Social Democracy Or Democratic Socialism?"), 311 pp, Can, ISBN 975-510-801-7
* "Türkiye'de Sosyal Demokrasi" ("Social Democracy in Turkey")
* "Engeller ve Çözümler" ("Obstacles and Solutions")
* "Yeni Sol, Sol'daki Arayış" ("The New Left, Seek in the Left"), 340 pp, Can, ISBN 975-8440-16-0
* "Gelecek İçin Denemeler" ("Essays about the Future"), 344 pp, Can, ISBN 975-8440-18-7
* "Türkiye, Avrupa, Avrasya I, Strateji-Yunanistan-Kıbrıs" ("Turkey, Europe, Eurasia I, Strategy-Greece-Cyprus"), 298 pp, Istanbul Bilgi University (2004), ISBN 975-6857-88-9
* "Avrupa'nın Birliği ve Türkiye" ("Union of Europe and Turkey"), 364 pp, Istanbul Bilgi University (2005), ISBN 975-6176-27-X

Awards

In 2000, he was honored by US-based "East West Institute" think-tank with the "Statesman of the Year" award together with the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs George Papandreou for fostering closer relations between the two nations. [cite web| url = http://newspot.byegm.gov.tr/arsiv/2000/May/N3.htm | title = STATESMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD FOR ISMAİL CEM Dead link|date=October 2008]

References

External links

* [http://www.canyayinlari.com/kitap_ayrinti.asp?id=864 Biography] , Can Press tr icon
* [http://www.candundar.com.tr/index.php?Did=3604 Fransa'daki Türkler toplu suç işlemeli] , Can Dündar's Web site tr icon
* [http://www.bilgiyay.com/authordetails.asp?id=55 Biography] , Istanbul Bilgi University Press tr icon
* [http://www.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/remarks/2001/5089.htm Remarks with Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ismail Cem] , Secretary Colin L. Powell, U.S. State Department.