[1][2] Shortly after winning the 1994 local elections, large-scale capital flight due to the lack of confidence in Çiller's budget deficit targets led to the Turkish lira and foreign currency reserves' almost collapsing.

Her government was alleged to have supported the 1995 Azeri coup d'état attempt and presided over an escalation of tensions with Greece after claiming sovereignty over the Imia/Kardak islets.

Revelations that she had employed individuals connected with the Turkish mafia and the Grey Wolves such as Abdullah Çatlı led to a decline in her approval ratings.

Despite coming third in the 2002 general election, Çiller's DYP won less than 10% of the vote and thus lost all parliamentary representation, which led to her resignation as party leader and departure from active politics.

In addition to her job at Boğaziçi, Çiller made a name for herself with her studies at TÜSİAD and her critical reports of the Motherland Party's (ANAP) economic policies.

Çiller took credit for some DYP slogans for the election, such as "two keys", but also generated controversy with the economic program called UDİDEM, which was not implemented by the government.

[4] After the death in office of President Turgut Özal (which according to some was part of an alleged military coup), Prime Minister Demirel won the 1993 presidential election.

[7] Çiller played a major role in reforming Turkey's economic institutions, which are known as the 5 April Decisions [tr] and was rewarded with IMF funding.

[citation needed] With a better equipped military, Çiller's government was able to persuade the United States and the European Union to register the PKK as a terrorist organization.

Beginning on 14 January 1994, almost a hundred people were kidnapped by commandos wearing uniforms and traveling in police vehicles and then killed somewhere along the road from Ankara to Istanbul.

Abdullah Çatlı, a leader of the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves and an organized crime figure, demanded money from people who were on "Çiller’s list", promising to get their names removed.

[9] Following the collapse of her government, allegations of corruption were filed against Çiller, included among the many charges was that she interfered in the privatization of the state run corporations Tofaş and Tedaş by demanding that she should read the sealed bids that prospective companies put forward.

[citation needed] As deputy Prime Minister under Erbakan's premiership, Çiller declared that if Greece tried to divide Albania, it would have the Turkish Army in Athens 24 hours later.

This coalition was controversial, not only did an openly Islamist politician become premier for the first time in the history of the Turkish Republic, but Çiller lost credibility for joining forces with those she most criticized on the campaign trail.

[10] In an eight (Welfare and DYP members) to seven vote, the Parliamentary Investigation Commission decided that her misuse of public funds on Tofaş and Tedaş tenders had no need to be reviewed by the Constitutional Court.

The Turkish Armed Forces eyed the coalition with great suspicion, but Çiller hoped that her secular credentials and strong relationship with the military could ease tensions.

However, by the beginning of 1997, relations between the government and the military were increasingly strained, especially after a Welfare mayor of Sincan hosted the Iranian Ambassador who gave a speech in support of Sharia Law (See Jerusalem Meeting).

After a nine-hour National Security Council meeting held on 28 February 1997, a set of demands were presented to the Refah-Yol government to combat what the military called İrtica (reactionarism).

Çiller and Akşener were successful in sacking the Chief of National Police and getting his replacement to wiretap high ranking generals of the Turkish Armed Forces.

Near the end of 1998, the corruption files about Yılmaz and Çiller were covered up at the commissions of the parliament in a common action staged by DYP, ANAP and DSP MPs.

[22] In the 1999 general election she presented herself as a leader of the downtrodden and the religious, pausing her campaign speeches during the prayer of Adhan, or demanding that women with their headscarves on should attend university.

Çiller's political career came to its end when her party narrowly failed to poll above the 10% threshold in the 2002 general election, thus receiving no representation in parliament despite her role as Leader of Main Opposition for more than two years.

[26] In 2018, Çiller attended a Justice and Development Party rally in support of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's candidacy for that year's presidential election.

She has two children with her husband, Özer Uçuran Çiller who died of heart attack at his home in Yeniköy, İstanbul, on 1 June 2024, at the age of 86.