ANKARA - Turkey's ruling Islamists yesterday won breathing space from an army political assault in a struggle with the generals for the hearts and minds of the nation.
Coalition ally, Ms Tansu Ciller, promised to stand by the Islamist Prime Minister, Mr Necmetin Erbakan, and the army denied that it was trying to sponsor individual secularist politicians as substitutes for the government.
Ms Ciller, the Deputy Prime Minister, said her True Path Party (DYP) would have nothing to do with an attempt by her fellow secularists in the opposition to form a shadow government that would unseat Mr Erbakan.