Turgut Ozal, 66, President of Turkey, Dies

President Turgut Ozal died Saturday of massive heart failure in Ankara, the Turkish capital, ending a decade in which his dominating presence led Turkey through remarkable change. He was 66.

State media switched to mourning music, sports events were canceled and flags were lowered to half-staff.

Ozal collapsed Saturday morning, apparently exhausted after a 12-day tour of the five newly independent Turkic Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union. Doctors fought to save him but he died within hours, already weakened by triple-bypass surgery in 1987, shock and wounds from an assassination attempt in 1988 and prostate cancer surgery last year.

Ozal was an engineer of humble origins who rose through the bureaucracy to become deputy prime minister in charge of the economy under the military coup leadership of 1980-83. He then led his center-right Motherland Party to victory in a 1983 parliamentary election and was elected president in 1989.

The short, stocky Ozal compared his rule to a “second revolution,” modernizing the republic that Kemal Ataturk built on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire 70 years ago.

Ozal thrust his secular Muslim nation into world consciousness as an ally of the West during the Persian Gulf War. He pushed the country into a bewildering but innovative array of initiatives, applying to join the European Community, intervening in northern Iraq and forming a Black Sea Cooperation Zone.

Ozal’s post will be temporarily filled by Parliament Speaker Husamettin Cindoruk. His successor will be chosen by Parliament.