ANKARA - Turkey's first Islamist Prime Minister, Mr Necmettin Erbakan, was forced into another embarrassing surrender to the powerful military yesterday, approving a twice yearly purge from the armed forces of officers deemed to have radical Islamic tendencies, writes Chris Nutall.
It was the third time since coming to office 11 months ago that Mr Erbakan had bowed to a practice he is on record as opposing. Yesterday he chaired the Supreme Military Council meeting where the "necessary decisions" were taken.
Mr Erbakan appeared intimidated when, surrounded by 15 senior commanders, he posed for the premeeting photograph. He had not been responsible for calling the extraordinary session of the council. Instead, the military had called it three months early to exert more pressure on him to clamp down on Islamic extremism.