Necmettin Erbakan, a Turkish Prime Minister, Dies at 84
Necmettin Erbakan, the first Islamist prime minister of Turkey, whose attempt to turn his country away from the West led the military to depose him in 1997, died on Sunday in Ankara. He was 84.
The cause was heart failure, said Dr. Tevfik Ali Kucukbas of Guven Hospital, where Mr. Erbakan had been in intensive care since mid-January.
During his turbulent year as prime minister, Mr. Erbakan boldly challenged Turkey’s secular dogma, vowing to create a pan-Islamic currency and rescue Turkey from “the unbelievers of Europe.” He embraced the religious government in Iran, allowed female civil servants to wear head scarves to work, and held Islamic feasts in the prime minister’s residence.
Yet Mr. Erbakan was also a consummate insider, always dapper in trademark Versace ties. He was among the last survivors of the political generation that ruled Turkey as it struggled toward democracy during the second half of the 20th century, a period punctuated by three military coups. He was often called Hodja, a term of affection accorded to religious teachers or wise men....
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The cause was heart failure, said Dr. Tevfik Ali Kucukbas of Guven Hospital, where Mr. Erbakan had been in intensive care since mid-January.
During his turbulent year as prime minister, Mr. Erbakan boldly challenged Turkey’s secular dogma, vowing to create a pan-Islamic currency and rescue Turkey from “the unbelievers of Europe.” He embraced the religious government in Iran, allowed female civil servants to wear head scarves to work, and held Islamic feasts in the prime minister’s residence.
Yet Mr. Erbakan was also a consummate insider, always dapper in trademark Versace ties. He was among the last survivors of the political generation that ruled Turkey as it struggled toward democracy during the second half of the 20th century, a period punctuated by three military coups. He was often called Hodja, a term of affection accorded to religious teachers or wise men....