Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA)

Strategic Alliances for a Secure, Connected, and Prosperous Region

Menu

Turkey’s Elections and Israel

December 30, 2002 | Efraim Inbar

The recent Turkish elections were more a protest vote against economic difficulties and corruption, not a wish to embrace Islamic radicalism. When the Islamist prime minister Necemettin Erbakan took power in 1996, the Turkish military, which regards itself as the ultimate guardian of the secularist democratic tradition of modern Turkey's founder, Kemal Ataturk, elegantly eased Erbakan out of power.