Turkey Politics

It all seemed so simple at first: Turkey's pro-Western First Lady Semra Ozal, long an influence on Turkish affairs of state, would quietly run for an official ruling party post. Her husband, President Turgut Ozal, could hardly have imagined that this would trigger an unprecedented revolt against him by a "holy alliance" of Islamic conservatives, which threatens not just to split the ruling Motherland Party but to undermine his regional leadership gains from the Persian Gulf crisis.

Ralph Fertig hardly resembles a terrorist, but the soft-spoken 79-year-old pacifist and human rights activist from Los Angeles might well qualify as one under the government's strong anti-terrorism law. He is the lead plaintiff in a Supreme Court case to be heard next week that will test whether speaking out on behalf of an oppressed foreign minority -- represented by a group that's been deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. -- can result...

President Suleyman Demirel on Friday asked a secular opposition leader backed by the armed forces to form Turkey's new government, ending an Islamic party's bid to stay in power until new elections. Mesut Yilmaz, 50, the dour, chain-smoking leader of the center-right Motherland Party, said he expects to form a government by June 30. But his prospects for assembling a parliamentary majority and ending the nation's political crisis are uncertain.

The nation's top court on Friday barred Turkey's leading Islamist politician from holding a seat in parliament, dashing his hopes of becoming the next prime minister. The ruling--the latest in a string of legal challenges hampering Recep Tayyip Erdogan's bid to govern Turkey--is widely seen as part of a broader campaign led by military leaders and the judiciary to stamp out Islamic political movements in this largely Muslim but officially secular nation.

Pro-Islamic leader Necmettin Erbakan began trying to form a new Turkish government Tuesday, just as the terrorist slaying of a leading businessman reminded Turks that violence could be the price of growing political uncertainty. "We expect the prayers of our 65 million people . . . will work with the love of faith, night and day, to form a government," Erbakan said after President Suleyman Demirel gave him 45 days to find a coalition partner.

The Turkish parliament failed to elect a new president Thursday as disgruntled lawmakers defied party leaders who had endorsed the handpicked candidate of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. Ahmet Necdet Sezer, 59, roundly beat 10 other hopefuls, garnering nearly four times as many votes as his closest rival, Nevzat Yalcintas of the Islamic opposition party Virtue.

One image captures many of the contradictions that characterize Turkey's taboo-breaking First Lady, Semra Ozal, and her countrywomen. Wrapped in a white cloth, the wife of Turkish President Turgut Ozal appeared a picture of Muslim modesty during a recent pilgrimage to Mecca. But then she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her husband, ignoring other Islamic customs by which women should be more deferential.

In December 1978, Turkey's Kahramanmaras province exploded in street fighting between left-wing and right-wing extremists that set the stage for a 1980 military coup and haunted the country for years. Most of the violence was blamed on an ultranationalist paramilitary group, the Gray Wolves. Now, after decades on the fringes of Turkey's turbulent politics, the Gray Wolves have made a leap into the mainstream.

A day after bringing Abdullah Ocalan home to face trial, Turkey on Wednesday sought to turn the capture of the Kurdish warlord into a demoralizing rout of his cause, sending troops against his insurgents' strongholds in northern Iraq and airing a videotape of the macho orator looking ill, dispirited and barely able to speak.

Nearly everyone in Istanbul, one of the world's fastest-growing and most unruly cities, will tell you that Recep Tayyip Erdogan is doing a better job of managing the chaos than they ever thought possible. Thanks to the 44-year-old mayor, they say, the city is cleaner and greener. Garbage is picked up regularly, trees are being planted, and hard coal has replaced the lignite that once fueled a choking smog. New dams and pipes channel more water to people's homes.

Being a mayor in southeastern Turkey, where most people are Kurdish, can be tricky. You've got to satisfy the voters' desire to express their ethnic identity more openly, without raising suspicion among Turkish officials that you are encouraging separatism. Last summer, after two years in office here, Emrullah Cin hit upon what he thought was a safe formula: He organized a festival to celebrate the shelengo, a strain of cucumber that, he claims, grows only in Viransehir and requires no water.

The nation's top anti-corruption crusader quit the Cabinet and his party Wednesday in protest after he was demoted because of anger over his aggressive campaign against graft. The resignation of Saadettin Tantan, who was interior minister before his demotion, is likely to cast a shadow over the Turkish government's professed determination to fight political corruption.

Turkish stocks dived after a row between the prime minister and president sparked concern over economic reforms that are vital for the country to secure more financial backing from the International Monetary Fund. The National Index of Turkey's 100 largest companies tumbled 1,486 points, or 14.6%, to 8,683 points, the lowest since Dec. 4. Turkey sold one-sixth of its foreign cash reserves to defend the lira as investors offloaded Turkish assets. The country's central bank sold at least $4.

Winding up his service in the Turkish army, Serdar Tanis, a 22-year-old Kurdish conscript, made what appears to have been a fatal error. He decided to set up a branch of the country's main Kurdish political party in his native Silopi in southeastern Turkey. From his faraway barracks near the Bulgarian border, the idea seemed perfectly legitimate.

Revelations that a top army general authorized a smear campaign against politicians, journalists and human rights activists have intensified debate in Turkey over the role of the military and have further undermined this nation's already shaky democracy.

For years, Turkey's political establishment faced--and managed to fend off--assertions that it colluded with drug traffickers, hit men and gunrunners in its 15-year war against Kurdish separatists. Since the separatists' defeat last year, however, the allegations have resurfaced from an unlikely and embarrassing source--a former chief of counterintelligence for Turkey's spy agency.

One is glitzy, popular, upwardly mobile and if it were human would probably munch on an American hamburger. The other is older, wise and respected but racked by a midlife crisis that may yet drive it to ruin. They are both Turkish newspapers: brash Sabah, circulation 700,000 and rising; and Cumhuriyet, the country's oldest national quality daily, which is kept alive by little more than the support of its small (about 50,000 copies sold) but near-fanatical body of readers.

The incumbent leftist prime minister, Bulent Ecevit, was asked Monday to form a new government amid renewed tensions between the country's army-backed pro-secular establishment and its embattled Islamist minority. "We will seek to form a government which will work in harmony," said Ecevit, 73, after meeting with Turkish President Suleyman Demirel. Ecevit's Party of the Democratic Left placed first by a small margin in nationwide elections April 18.

The Turkish parliament failed to elect a new president Thursday as disgruntled lawmakers defied party leaders who had endorsed the handpicked candidate of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. Ahmet Necdet Sezer, 59, roundly beat 10 other hopefuls, garnering nearly four times as many votes as his closest rival, Nevzat Yalcintas of the Islamic opposition party Virtue.