Turkey’s modern Islamist founder Erbakan dies

Turkey’s first Islamist Prime Minister, Necmettin Erbakan, has died from heart failure at the age of 85. The founder of Turkey’s modern Islamist movement, Erbakan became premier in a coalition government in 1996. But he served for only one year after being forced to step down by the staunchly secular military. His Islamist Welfare Party was outlawed in 1998 and Erbakan was banned from politics for five years. Welfare was a precursor of Turkey’s current ruling AK Party,