TURKEY - Profile - Zeki Cakan.

Appointed as the minister of Energy and Natural Resources in early May 2001, Cakan is seen as one of the up and coming stars of the ANAP party led by Yilmaz. Cakan replaced Cumhur Ersumer, also a key member of ANAP, who was forced to resign on April 27, 2001, amid corruption charges. Although he continued to deny the allegations, he said the atmosphere made it difficult for him to continue. Ersumer had been in the position since June 1999.

Cakan is one of the leading members of ANAP although there are others considered more senior than him. He has served as a vocal member of ANAP members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (parliament), holding the position of Deputy Chairman of Parliamentary Group of ANAP. As such he has often served as the spokesman of the party in parliament. His background in the energy sector is said to be limited.

The status of Cakan in the party can be seen from the fact that the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry is one of the most important for any party coming to power. ANAP had insisted on keeping the energy and natural resources portfolio under its control during negotiations with the other coalition members in June 1997 and in 1999 negotiations with Ecevit.

It is likely that Cakan will take over from where Ersumer left off, in terms of policy orientations. He is not expected to move far from the party line. One of the key objectives of Ersumer had been, since 1997, to get investment in the electricity sector moving. There is a steadily growing shortage of electricity in Turkey. (Up to 30% of the country's generating capacity is lost due to faulty equipment, non-payment on the part of public institutions and shanty-town dwellers adept at helping themselves from nearby transmission lines).

Dr. Yurdakul Yigitguden, a young and bold technocrat, is the undersecretary of the energy and natural resources ministry. For years he has been the top civil servant at the ministry. He controls the heads of the state-controlled firms in the energy sector, such as the national oil company TPAO, the pipeline company and gas utility Botas, and the power generating monopoly Teas. Teas is to be broken into three companies for generation, transmission and sales, prior to their privatisation. Yigitguden has said he expects an independent electricity regulator - modelled on the British system and in line with European Union directives - to emerge by end-2001.

Dedicated and efficient, Yigitguden also has been a university professor and is often invited abroad for conferences. He still gives lectures, and at the ministry he works hard. He is a keen advocate of privatisation in the energy sector. He has stoutly promoted the US-backed proposals to build a major crude oil pipeline from Azerbaijan to the Turkish terminal of Ceyhan and a Trans-Caspian gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Europe to pass through Azerbaijan and Turkey. Yigitguden was behind efforts to establish at the energy and natural resources ministry a department to speed up such pipeline projects.