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Prof. Dr. Necmettin Erbakan (born October 29 1926) became prime minister of Turkey in 1996, serving until mid-1997.
Biography
Erbakan was born in Sinop, at the coast of Black Sea in northern Turkey. He graduated from the Mechanical Engeeniering Faculty at the Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ) in 1948. He received his PhD from the Technical University in Aachen, Germany. Returned to Turkey, Erbakan became lecturer at the İTÜ and was appointed professor in 1965 at the same university. After working some time in leading position in the industry, he switched over to politics, and was elected deputy of Konya in 1969.
Political activities
A mainstay of the religious wing of Turkish politics since the 1970s, Erbakan has been the leader of a series of political parties that have risen to prominence only to be banned by Turkey's secular authorities. In the 1970s, Erbakan was chairman of the "Milli Selamet Partisi" (National Salvation Party) which, at its peak, served in coalition with the "Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi" (Republican People's Party) of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit during the Cyprus crisis of 1974.
In the wake of the 1980 military coup, Erbakan and his party were banned from politics. He reemerged following a referrendum to lift the ban in 1990, and became the leader of Refah Partisi (Welfare Party). His party benefitted in the 1990s from the acrimony between the leaders of Turkey's two most prominent conservative parties, Mesut Yilmaz and Tansu Çiller and led his party to a surprise success in the general elections of 1995. He became Prime Minister in 1996 in coalition with Çiller's Dogru Yol Partisi (True Path Party), and steered Turkey in a considerably more widen and economically improved. In addition to increasing economic welfare among Turkish citizens, the government followed multi-dimensional politics. Erbakan founded D-8, which was a new initiative for economic cooperation among developing Muslim countries. It includes Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey. Necmettin Erbakan's idea is called Milli Görüs (National Outlook). The organisation uphelds nowadays that the word "national" is to be understood in the sense of monotheistic ecumenism.Statement of the IGMG (Islamische Gemeinschaft Milli Görüş e.V.) to the 2002 report of the German State Office for the Protection of the Constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia (German, PDF)Wer ist Milli Görüs? (Who is Milli Görüs?), German daily Die tageszeitung, May 7, 2004 (German) Turkey's economy and social welfare has been gradually improving however, some big trade unions,associations,newspapers, television channels attacked the government owing to their self interest and private issues with provocing the Turkish military as exaggerating many artificial events. At last,The Turkish military gradually increased the harshness and frequency of its public warnings to Erbakan's government, eventually prompting Erbakan to step down in 1997. Refah was subsequently closed down by court order, and Erbakan was banned once again from politics.
Despite being under constant political ban, Erbakan nonetheless acted as a mentor and informal advisor to former Refah members who founded both Fazilet Partisi (Virtue Party) and the Saadet Partisi (Felicity Party).
As well as his political career Necmettin Erbakan had his success in mechanical engineering and has invented several devices.
He also received a prison sentence as government allocated political funds into his party were embezzled. The whereabouts of this huge amount of money is unknown but industry insiders mention he has purchased a cigarette paper manufacturing paper mill in the black sea region.
Views
Erbakan was fundamentalist in religious belief and was not a mainstream politician though he had been well-known, especially as an ingenious politician. Erbakan feels that science and history prove that Islam is the only salvation for humanity. He alleges that the West is being ruled by a "racist Imperialism, i.e. the Zionism". The later, he claims, had been created 5765 years ago by a "book of magic called the Kabbala"Tek yol İSLÂM birliği, Milli Gazete, May 29 2006 (Turkish) Treffen der "Muslimischen Vereinigung" in Istanbul (Meeting of the Muslim association in Istanbul), report and German translation by the German Evangelical Alliance's Institute for Islamic Concerns, June 1, 2006
Notes
1926 births | Living people | Prime Ministers of Turkey | Turkish academics | Turkish politicians
"Necmettin Erbakan"