Obituary: Turkey’s first Islamist leader Erbakan dies

Necmettin Erbakan, the mentor of political Islam in secular Turkey, dies of a heart failure

ANKARA: Necmettin Erbakan, the mentor of political Islam in secular Turkey and its first Islamist prime minister, died of a heart failure on Sunday, aged 84, doctors and aides said.

“Turkey has lost one of its most valuable people... Let him rest in peace,” Erbakan’s long-time associate Oguzhan Asilturk said on NTV television.

The chief physician of the Ankara hospital that had been treating Erbakan since early January said his condition deteriorated in the morning.

“There was an abrupt disorder in his heart rhythm... We failed to get any result despite all treatment,” the doctor said in televised remarks.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan immediately issued a message of condolences over the death of a man who was his mentor but later become a political rival.

“He set a good example as a teacher and leader for young generations with his personality, his struggle and principles,” Erdogan said.  “We will always remember him with gratitude for what he taught us and for his persevering character,” he said.

Erbakan, who headed the small Islamist Felicity Party, had looked increasing frail in recent years and often used a wheelchair. He became secular Turkey’s first Islamist prime minister in 1996 at the helm of a coalition with a centre-right party.

But he was forced to resign a year later as a result of a harsh secularist campaign led by the powerful army concerned over threats to Turkey’s secular, pro-Western tradition. The campaign came after his party’s moves to raise the profile of Islam in social life and to seek closer ties with Islamic states such as Iran and Libya.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2011.