Necmettin Erbakan

Necmettin Erbakan was a Turkish politician, engineer, and academic who was the Prime Minister of Turkey from 1996 to 1997. He was the leader of the Islamist Welfare Party from 1983 to 1998. He was also the leader of the National Outlook Movement from 1969 to 1983. Erbakan was the founder and leader of several prominent Islamic political parties in Turkey from the 1960s to the 2010s, namely the National Order Party, the National Salvation Party, the Welfare Party, the Virtue Party, and the Felicity Party. He was the first Islamist prime minister of Turkey and the first to be forced to resign by the military. He was later banned from politics by the Constitutional Court of Turkey for allegedly violating the separation of religion and state as mandated by the constitution. Erbakan was born in Sinop, at the coast of Black Sea in northern Turkey. He was the son of one of the last Islamic judges of the Ottoman Empire, whose system of religious courts was replaced by a secular legal code after the founding of modern Turkey by Kemal Atatürk in 1923. He received degrees in mechanical engineering from Istanbul Technical University, where he later taught, and the Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University of Aachen, then in West Germany. He was elected in 1969 to the legislature as an independent and formed an Islamic party the following year, but it was banned by the military government in 1971. He re-formed the party in 1972 and twice during the 1970s served as a deputy prime minister. In 1980 the military again banned the party and briefly imprisoned Erbakan. He was prohibited from engaging in politics from 1980 to 1987. When he returned to politics, Erbakan became a leader of the pro-Islamic Welfare Party, which was well organized on the local level and opposed what many saw as the arrogant corruption of the leaders of the established parties. In the run-up to the 1995 parliamentary elections, Erbakan advocated withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, abrogating agreements with Israel, and developing closer ties with such Middle Eastern countries as Syria and Iran. His proposals were particularly unsettling to Western leaders, who had long depended on a friendly secular government in Turkey as a basis for their policy in the Middle East. A large segment of voters, however, seemed to support his views, as the Welfare Party won the largest number of seats, capturing 158 of the 550 seats in the legislature and thereby becoming the first Islamic party ever to win a general election in Turkey. Early in 1996 Erbakan tried but failed to form a coalition government. A centre-right coalition of the True Path and Motherland parties then held power until internal disagreements brought it down in June. Erbakan then formed a coalition with the True Path Party, led by Tansu Çiller, and became the prime minister. His tenure was marked by tensions with the secular establishment, especially the military, which saw him as a threat to the secular order. Erbakan pursued a pro-Islamic foreign policy, visiting Iran, Libya, and Nigeria, and hosting a summit of the Developing Eight, a group of Muslim-majority countries. He also faced criticism for his attempts to ease the restrictions on religious expression in Turkey, such as allowing women to wear headscarves in public institutions and promoting religious education. In February 1997, the military issued a memorandum demanding Erbakan to implement a series of measures to curb the influence of Islamism in Turkey. Erbakan reluctantly agreed, but his coalition partner Çiller withdrew her support and called for early elections. Erbakan resigned in June 1997, ending his 11-month term as prime minister. In January 1998, the Welfare Party was banned by the Constitutional Court for violating the principle of secularism. Erbakan was also banned from politics for five years. He was succeeded by Recai Kutan as the leader of the Virtue Party, which was formed by the former members of the Welfare Party. In 2001, the Virtue Party was also banned by the Constitutional Court, and its members split into two factions: the traditionalists, who followed Erbakan and formed the Felicity Party, and the reformists, who formed the Justice and Development Party (AKP) under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Abdullah Gül, both former protégés of Erbakan. The AKP went on to win the 2002 general elections and became the dominant force in Turkish politics, while the Felicity Party remained a minor party with little influence. Erbakan returned to politics in 2003, after his ban expired, and became the leader of the Felicity Party. He ran for president in 2007, but received only 21 votes in the parliament. He resigned as the party leader in 2004 and 2010, but was re-elected each time. He remained the leader of the party until his death in 2011. He died of heart failure at the age of 84 in Ankara. He was buried in Istanbul, next to his wife Nermin, who had died in 2005. He was survived by his three children, Zeynep, Elif, and Fatih, who also became a politician and the leader of the Yeniden Refah Partisi (Refah Party Again). Erbakan was a controversial figure in Turkish politics. He was known for his strong opposition to the secularization of Turkey and his support for Islamic values. He was also known for his strong anti-Western stance and his support for closer ties with the Muslim world. He was regarded as the founder of the Millî Görüş (National View) ideology and movement, which argued that Turkey could develop with its own power by protecting its religious values and moving forward with faster steps by rivaling the Western countries. He was also seen as the pioneer of Turkish political Islam and the mentor of many prominent Islamist politicians, including Erdoğan and Gül. He was respected by his supporters as a visionary leader and a devout Muslim, but he was also criticized by his opponents as a divisive and reactionary figure who threatened the secular and democratic foundations of Turkey.