Clik here to view.
Necmettin Erbakan served a year as prime minister before he was pressured by the secular military to step down in 1997
Necmettin Erbakan, a longtime leader of Turkey's Islamic political movement and briefly the prime minister in the first Islamic-led coalition in the country's modern history, died on Sunday aged 85.
The leader of the Felicity party had been working on election strategy ahead of polls in June despite his deteriorating health, said Recai Kutan, a close confidant. Doctors said Erbakan died of heart failure. He also had respiratory problems and a chronic vein infection in his left leg.
Affectionately known as Hodja – or teacher – Erbakan served a year as prime minister before he was pressured by the secular military to step down in 1997.
His Welfare party was shut down by the constitutional court for undermining secularism, which led to the birth of the country's now ruling Justice and Development party as well as several small pro-Islamic parties.
The prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former Welfare party member, said: "We will always remember him with gratitude as a teacher and a leader."
Erbakan was first elected to parliament after standing as an independent candidate in 1969, and laid the seeds of the country's political Islamic movement. He served as deputy prime minister in several coalitions in the 1970s.
He set up five political parties, four of which were closed down after military coups or by courts on the grounds of undermining secular principles. Turkey's military sees itself as the guardian of Turkey's secular traditions, and Erbakan had alarmed the generals with moves to allow female civil servants to wear Islamic attire at work and to rearrange working hours to fit fasting times during Ramadan.
He was barred from politics for five years and convicted of falsifying party records and hiding millions in cash reserves ordered to be seized after his party's closure in 1998. He was elected as head of the Felicity party as soon as his ban ended in 2003.
The party had been expected to win only a tiny percentage of votes in the June elections. However, on Sunday the leader of another small pro-Islamic party signalled a possible alliance.
"We were last talking about a possible cooperation in the elections," said Abdullah Latif Sener, leader of the Turkey party. "We will follow his wish."
