İsmail Cem (born İsmail Cem İpekçi, 15 February 1940 – 24 January 2007) was a Turkish centre-leftist politician, intellectual and journalist who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey from 1997 to 2002.

Background

İsmail Cem finished high school at

Robert College The American Robert College of Istanbul ( tr, İstanbul Özel Amerikan Robert Lisesi or ), often shortened to Robert, or RC, is a Selective school, highly selective, Independent school, independent, mixed-sex education, co-educational Secondary ...

in İstanbul in 1959 and graduated from the Law School at the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 1963. He had his master's degree in sociology of politics at the

École Libre des Sciences Politiques , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

in 1983,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

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. He was an exchange student with

AFS Intercultural Programs AFS Intercultural Programs (or AFS, originally the American Field Service) is an international youth exchange organization. It consists of over 50 independent, not-for-profit organizations, each with its own network of Volunteering, volunteers ...

at Piedmont High School, Piedmont 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 liberal-leftist journalist, intellectual and human rights activist

Abdi İpekçi Abdi İpekçi (9 August 1929 – 1 February 1979) was a Turkish journalist, intellectual and an activist for human rights. He was murdered while editor-in-chief of one of the main Turkish daily newspapers ''Milliyet'' which then had a centre ...

, the editor in chief for then centre-leftist Milliyet newspaper. Cem was the son of İhsan İpekçi (1901-1966), who was one of the pioneers of the Turkish cinema industry, as the founder and partner of İpek Film, and several popular Istanbul movie theaters including Yeni Melek and İpek. İsmail Cem was an avid photographer, and held four photo exhibits, and published a book ''Mevsim, Mevsim''

Journalism

Returning home in 1963, Cem started his professional career as a journalist. He worked in some major newspapers who published articles and became a columnist for ''

Milliyet ''Milliyet'' ( Turkish for "''nationality''") is a Turkish daily newspaper published in Istanbul, Turkey. History and profile ''Milliyet'' came to publishing life at the Nuri Akça press in Babıali, Istanbul as a daily private newspaper on 3 ...

'', "

Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: " Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Pres ...

" and Politika, where he served as the editor in chief for the second newspaper from 1964 until 1966. Between 1971 and 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 The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT; Turkish : ) is the national public broadcaster of Turkey, founded in 1964. TRT was for many years the only television and radio provider in Turkey. Before the introduction of commercial radio i ...

(TRT) under the 37th and 38th governments. 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 The president of Turkey, officially the president of the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Cumhurbaşkanı), is the head of state and head of government of Turkey. The president directs the executive branch of the government of Tu ...

Süleyman Demirel Süleyman Sami Demirel (; 1 November 1924 – 17 June 2015) was a Turkish people, Turkish politician, engineer, and statesman who served as the List of Presidents of Turkey, 9th President of Turkey from 1993 to 2000. He previously served as the ...

used their political and social influence to remove İpekçi from his post in several attempts, which have all proven fruitless.

Writing career

Among with his political and journalistic successes, İpekçi is also known as one of the ideologists of social democracy in Turkey, and was counted among the prominent figures within the Turkish centre-left. İpekçi, 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 his 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. İpekçi'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

Islamism Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is ...

and the debate of reformation in Turkish left. He is also labeled as the visionary of th
"Anatolian Left (Anadolu Solu)"
A more detailed bibliography of his works can be found below.

Political career

He entered politics after being elected deputy of

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

from the

Kadıköy Kadıköy (), known in classical antiquity and during the Roman and Byzantine eras as Chalcedon ( gr, Χαλκηδών), is a large, populous, and cosmopolitan district in the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey, on the northern shore of the Sea of ...

district in the general elections held in 1987. He was re-elected in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

again from Istanbul and in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

from

Kayseri Kayseri (; el, Καισάρεια) is a large Industrialisation, industrialised List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. The Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality area is comp ...

. After the death of President

Turgut Özal Halil Turgut Özal (; 13 October 192717 April 1993) was a Turkish politician, who served as the 8th President of Turkey from 1989 to 1993. He previously served as the 26th Prime Minister of Turkey from 1983 to 1989 as the leader of the Mothe ...

in 1993, he ran for president without success. In 1995, İpekçi left the

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party ( tr, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, , acronymized as CHP ) is a Kemalist and social-democratic political party in Turkey which currently stands as the main opposition party. It is also the oldest political party ...

(CHP) and joined the Democratic Left Party (DSP). He was then appointed Minister of Culture. He served as minister of foreign affairs from 30 June 1997 until 11 July 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. He was largely credited with Turkey's declaration as a full member candidate during the Helsinki Summit Meeting in 1992, after much negotiation with the EU and a night trip by EU foreign policy chief

Javier Solana Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga (; born 14 July 1942) is a Spanish physicist and PSOE The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-dem ...

and the then

European Commissioner A European Commissioner is a member of the 27-member European Commission. Each member within the Commission holds a specific portfolio. The commission is led by the President of the European Commission. In simple terms they are the equivalent ...

Günter Verheugen Günter Verheugen (born 28 April 1944) is a German politician who served as European Commissioner for Enlargement from 1999 to 2004, and then as European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry from 2004 to 2010. He was also one of five vice ...

to Ankara to iron out the last details.

Relations with Greece

İpekçi and his

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

counterpart

George Papandreou George Andreas Papandreou ( el, Γεώργιος Ανδρέας Παπανδρέου, , shortened to ''Giorgos'' () to distinguish him from his grandfather; born 16 June 1952) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from ...

worked to improve Turkish-Greek relations. It is during his tenure as foreign minister that a confident, albeit a step-by-step approach was taken towards a

rapprochement In international relations, a rapprochement, which comes from the French word ''rapprocher'' ("to bring together"), is a re-establishment of cordial relations between two countries. This may be done due to a mutual enemy, as was the case with Germ ...

between Turkey and Greece. The relations were actually at an all-time low after the

Abdullah Öcalan Abdullah Öcalan ( ; ; born 4 April 1949), also known as Apo (short for Abdullah in Turkish and Kurdish for "uncle"), is a political prisoner and founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Öcalan was based in Syria from ...

affair, whereby Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos and some officials of the Greek Foreign Ministry were involved in hiding organization

PKK The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...

leader prior to his arrest by the Turkish police. İpekçi 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 Mustafa Bülent Ecevit (; 28 May 1925 – 5 November 2006) was a Turkish politician, statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist, who served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002. He served as prime minister in ...

, he resigned from the Democratic Left Party (DSP) ahead of 2002 parliamentary elections and formed the New Turkey Party (YTP) on 20 July 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 24 October 2004, joining the CHP. İsmail Cem was acting as the chief advisor to

Deniz Baykal Deniz Baykal (born 20 July 1938) is a Turkish politician at the Republican People's Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, abbreviated CHP) who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 1996. Having served in ...

, the leader of CHP, and lectured in Applied Foreign Politics of Turkey at the

Istanbul Bilgi University Istanbul Bilgi University ( tr, İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi), officially established in 1996, is a private university located in Istanbul, Turkey. The university has 4 campuses centrally-located in Istanbul namely SantralIstanbul, Kuştepe, Do ...

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 24 January 2007 in İstanbul after suffering for two years from lung cancer. He was honored with a

state funeral A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of Etiquette, protocol, held to honour people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive ...

, at which Speaker of the Parliament

Bülent Arınç Bülent Arınç (; born 25 May 1948) is a conservative Turkish politician. He served as the 22nd Speaker of the Parliament of Turkey from 2002 to 2007 and as a Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey between 2009 and 2015. Early life and education He wa ...

, Prime Minister

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

, current and former leaders of the political parties, his close friend former Minister of Foreign Affairs of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, George Papandreou and Greek Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Theodoros Kasimis attended. He was interred at the

Zincirlikuyu Cemetery __NOTOC__ The Zincirlikuyu Cemetery ( tr, Zincirlikuyu Mezarlığı) is a modern burial ground residing on the European part of Istanbul, Turkey. It is administered by the Metropolitan Municipality. Many prominent figures from the world of polit ...

. Papandreou laid on his grave a branch from the olive tree they both had planted 2000 in Greece as a symbol of peace.

Legacy

İsmail Cem was especially admired by young people in Turkey during his time as a foreign minister. Some polls indicated that young people desired to see Cem as

. İsmail Cem's biography written by Turkish political scientist Ozan Örmeci
"Portrait of a Turkish Social Democrat: İsmail Cem"
and its Turkish versio
"Bir Türk Sosyal Demokratı: İsmail Cem"
found many readers among Turkish intellectuals and showed Cem's unique place in Turkish social democratic movement.

Bibliography

* ''Türkiye'de Geri Kalmışlığın Tarihi'' (''History of Under Development in Turkey''), 512 pp, Can, * ''Türkiye Üzerine Yazılar'' (''Articles on Turkey'') * ''12 Mart'' (12 March) (Referring to 12 March 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, * ''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, * ''Gelecek İçin Denemeler'' (''Essays about the Future''), 344 pp, Can, * ''Türkiye, Avrupa, Avrasya I, Strateji-Yunanistan-Kıbrıs'' (''Turkey, Europe, Eurasia I, Strategy-Greece-Cyprus''), 298 pp, Istanbul Bilgi University (2004), * ''Avrupa'nın Birliği ve Türkiye'' (''Union of Europe and Turkey''), 364 pp, Istanbul Bilgi University (2005),

Awards

In 2000, Cem 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

for fostering closer relations between the two nations.

References

External links

Biography
Can Press
Fransa'daki Türkler toplu suç işlemeli
Can Dündar's Web site
Biography
Istanbul Bilgi University Press

Secretary

Colin L. Powell Colin Luther Powell ( ; April 5, 1937 – October 18, 2021) was an American politician, statesman, diplomat, and United States Army officer who served as the 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African ...

, U.S. State Department {{DEFAULTSORT:Cem, İsmail 1940 births 2007 deaths Turkish social democrats Turkish democracy activists Deaths from lung cancer Istanbul Bilgi University faculty Leaders of political parties in Turkey Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Turkish non-fiction writers People from Istanbul Robert College alumni Turkish journalists Turkish photographers Ministers of Culture of Turkey Burials at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery Deaths from cancer in Turkey Republican People's Party (Turkey) politicians Social Democratic Populist Party (Turkey) politicians Democratic Left Party (Turkey) politicians Turkish jurists Turkish civil servants Milliyet people Cumhuriyet people Deputies of Istanbul University of Lausanne alumni Members of the 21st Parliament of Turkey Members of the 20th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 50th government of Turkey Members of the 55th government of Turkey Members of the 56th government of Turkey Members of the 57th government of Turkey 20th-century journalists Sabbateans Turkish expatriates in Switzerland