Ankara, Monday
PRIME Minister Necmettin Erbakan today crowned his marathon bid for power with a narrow confidence vote win that shattered secular Turkey's decades-old taboo against political Islam.
Parliament voted narrowly to approve Erbakan's coalition with the pro-Western conservative True Path Party of Tansu Ciller, ratifying Islamist control of the government for the first time in the 73 years of the Turkish republic.
``A new era has begun in Turkey,'' Erbakan told Parliament. ``We will work day and night with the spirit of worship.''
The moment of triumph for Erbakan, 70, and his Welfare Party followed months of deft political manoeuvres that has forced the secularist elite to cede the Islamists a permanent place at the political table.
Last month Ciller was forced to accept a junior coalition role with a party she had once vilified for ``sinking the country into darkness''.-Reuter.
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