TURKEY: NECMETTIN ERBAKAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE RECENTLY-BANNED WELFARE PARTY, IS GREETED BY THOUSANDS OF ISLAMIST SUPPORTERS
Record ID:
566060
TURKEY: NECMETTIN ERBAKAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE RECENTLY-BANNED WELFARE PARTY, IS GREETED BY THOUSANDS OF ISLAMIST SUPPORTERS
- Title: TURKEY: NECMETTIN ERBAKAN, CHAIRMAN OF THE RECENTLY-BANNED WELFARE PARTY, IS GREETED BY THOUSANDS OF ISLAMIST SUPPORTERS
- Date: 18th January 1998
- Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JANUARY 18 1998) (RTV) 1. SCU DEMONSTRATORS MARCHING 0.06 2. LV DEMONSTRATORS WITH BANNERS ; CARS BLOCKED (4 SHOTS) 0.26 3. SLV ISLAMIST MEN PRAYING 0.32 4. GV PAN BLOCKED TRAFFIC/HAS BLOCKED TRAFFIC (2 SHOTS) 0.44 5. SLV CARS COVERED WITH FLAGS (2 SHOTS) 0.53 6. MV ISLAMIST MAN WITH FLAG 0.57 7. SCU DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING (2 SHOTS) 1.12 8. HAS BLOCKADED ROADS 1.16 NIGHTSHOTS: 9. SLV CONVOY OF POLICE CARS WITH SIRENS SounDING AND LIGHTS FLASHING /DEMONSTRATORS IN CARS SOUNDING HORNS (3 SHOTS) 1.32 10. SLV CROWD GATHERED 1.40 11. SCU DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING 1.46 12. LAS FIREWORKS 1.53 13. SCU DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING (2 SHOTS) 2.10 14. SCU ISLAMISTS INSIDE CONFERENCE ROOM 2.20 15. SCU CHILD WITH FLAG 2.27 16. SLV SUPPORTERS SURROUNDING NECMETTIN ERBAKAN WHO PUSHES HIS WAY THROUGH TO ADDRESS THE CROWD 2.57 17. MV OFFICIALS TAKE THEIR SEATS 3.03 18. SLV ERBAKAN ADDRESSING CROWD 3.09 19. SCU ERBAKAN ADDRESSING CROWD (TURKISH) 3.39 Initials S3 P3 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 2nd February 1998 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ISTANBUL, TURKEY
- City:
- Country: Turkey
- Reuters ID: LVA2OO31JSX1Z4GYGV4LL1LH8D9J
- Story Text: - INTRO: The chairman of the recently outlawed Islam-based Welfare Party Necmettin Erbakan was greeted at Istanbul airport by several thousand Islamists blocking traffic and shouting for "Warrior of the faith Erbakan".
Islamist Welfare Party supporters marched through the streets of Istanbul on Sunday (January 18) to voice their discontent over the constitutional court's decision to ban Erbakan from politics.
The constitutional court on Friday banned the main opposition Welfare Party and barred its leader Necmettin Erbakan from politics for five years for violating the secularist principles of the constitution.
Erbakan arrived at Istanbul airport on Sunday evening to be greeted by thousands of Islamists blocking traffic and shouting for "Warrior of the faith Erbakan".
They followed him in a boisterous convoy to a large restaurant where he broke his Ramadan fast with thousands of Welfare supporters.
Erbakan told his followers that work would continue to set up a replacement party to carry on the Welfare mission.
"We will continue on our path with a new party," he told the packed hall.
But the prosecutor who brought the case to outlaw Welfare warned any successor party that may be set up mustnot to violate Turkey's secular legal code.
"If we come to the opinion that a party is acting as the continuation of a banned party, we will, as the constitution orders us to, open a closure case against that party," newspapers quoted attorney-general Vural Savas as saying.
The laws of overwhelmingly Moslem but officially secular Turkey strictly forbid any mixing of religion with politics.
As well as banning Welfare, the court stripped 71-year-old Erbakan and five other Islamists of their seats in parliament.
The party's remaining deputies will automatically become independents, offering an attractive prospect for Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz's fragile coalition government.
Erbakan served for a year as modern Turkey's first Islamist prime minister but resigned in June after months of pressure from the secularist military and media alarmed at a series of largely symbolic threats to the secular order.
The party closure verdict drew adverse reactions from its ally the United States and its uneasy eastern neighbour Iran.
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