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Article: Turkey Shoot.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- July 28, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ISTANBUL
Call it a velvet coup. To the West's relief, Turkey's military has ousted this country's first Islamist leader. In just 51 weeks, Necmettin Erbakan flew round-trip from opposition politician to prime minister and back again. Turkey's armed forces and its equally secular political establishment orchestrated his political demise without gunfire. Erbakan's stunning rise and fall shows that, despite Western worries, the threat of Islamic fundamentalism to Turkey's secular state has been greatly exaggerated.
The West, of course, is vitally interested in this key ally astride Europe and the Middle East. Within NATO, Turkey's army is second in size ...