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'Tansu Penbe Çiller' (IPA: (born 9 October 1946) is an economist and politician in Turkey. She was Turkey's first and to date only female prime minister.
She was born in Istanbul and graduated from the School of Economics at Robert College after finishing the American College for Girls of Istanbul. Çiller received her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and completed later on her postdoctoral studies at Yale University. In 1978, she became a lecturer and in 1983 a professor.
After teaching at several universities as a professor, she entered politics in November 1990 joining the True Path Party. She was first elected to parliament in 1991 as deputy of Istanbul and served as Minister of State in charge of economics in the coalition government of Suleyman Demirel. On June 13, 1993, she became party leader and then prime minister of a coalition government. The withdrawal of the Republican People's Party from coalition in 1996 brought down her government.
She was investigated in the Turkish Parliament on serious corruption accusations following her period in government. Along with Mesut Yılmaz she was later cleared of all the charges mainly due to technicalities such as statute of limitations and political immunity. Many in Turkey believe that such charges played an important role in the emergence of political Islam in Turkey, and eventually led to the victory of the present government of Recep T. Erdoğan.
After her November 2002 election defeat, she retired from political life.
She is married to Özer Çiller and they have two children.