Background
Turgut Özal served as prime minister from 1983 and as president from 1989, and is closely identified with Turkey's economic and political transformation in those years. In spring 1993 he was in the fourth year of his presidency, at a time when debates over the Kurdish issue and the economy dominated the agenda.
Özal had undergone heart surgery in the United States in 1987. That history shaped the first official explanations of his death, which pointed to a heart attack.
He had also survived an assassination attempt in 1988, which later fed the suspicion surrounding his death.
What happened
Özal died in Ankara on 17 April 1993, and the death was announced as a heart attack. No autopsy was performed at the time, a gap that later became the foundation of the controversy. His wife, Semra Özal, and some relatives voiced doubts for years about whether the death was natural.
The doubts centred on the absence of an autopsy and on blood test results missing from the file. A report prepared within the presidency also described the death as suspicious.
Semra Özal said she had doubts about a drink served at a reception the evening before; this remains an allegation not confirmed by any official finding.
Investigation and exhumation
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation in 2012, and Özal's grave was opened on 2 October 2012 to take samples. In November 2012 some press reports cited substances said to indicate poisoning, but officials of the Forensic Medicine Institute did not confirm those claims at that stage.
The institute's report, announced on 17 December 2012, found no clinical or laboratory evidence of poisoning or of radioactive material. It added that because no autopsy had been done promptly, the exact cause of death could not be determined and a sudden cardiac death could not be excluded. Prosecutors said the investigation would continue using other findings.
The report also stated that cadmium levels were within the normal range, and it was reportedly approved unanimously by the panel. Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said afterwards that it did not dispel the suspicions.
Where it stands today
The report did not settle the doubts, and some officials of the time said so openly. No one has been convicted in connection with the death, and its cause has never been formally established. The case is often cited as an example of how a missing autopsy and uncollected early evidence can leave a political death permanently uncertain.