SECULAR STATE SUSPENDED?

IN A CURIOUS PARTNERSHIP, A PRO-ISLAMIC POPULIST TAKES POWER IN TURKEY

He is a populist, pro-Islamic politician whose party did not field a single female candidate in the last elections; she is a decidedly secular, right-wing former Prime Minister who got her husband to take her surname. Odd couplings are common in politics, but the union of Necmettin Erbakan and Tansu Ciller is especially curious. Last week Erbakan became the head of the first Islamist-majority coalition government in Turkey since Kemal Ataturk declared it a secular state in 1923. In two years' time, Erbakan is due to hand over power to Ciller and her True Path Party. The deal was ratified during...

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