Turkish politician who turned a page of history The most successful foreign minister Turkey had seen for years, and one of the longest-serving one, serving three governments from 1997 to 2003, Ismail Cem was a driving force behind the thaw in relations between archrivals Turkey and Greece that turned a page on their history. He was Turkey's political strategist whose scholarly book 'The History of Underdevelopment in Turkey' (1970) expressed the mood of growing radicalism in the country in the late 1960s. Cem - he discarded Ipekci as his surname - was born to a prominent Istanbul family. He died of lung cancer.