Turkey’s Experiment in Islamist Government

(Data and Analysis Series)

For eleven months, beginning in July 1996, Turkey was governed by a coalition led by the Islamist Welfare (Refah) Party. Its leader, Necmettin Erbakan, became prime minister, in a development that sent shockwaves through the Turkish polity. This study considers the power struggle that developed between Erbakan and the military over questions of secularism and Islamization, culminating in the fall of the government.