TURKEY: Thousands of Turks pay their final respects to former prime minister Ecevit

Thousands of Turks chanted in defence of secularism on Saturday (November 11) as they buried veteran leader Bulent Ecevit, best known for winning EU candidacy for Turkey and invading Cyprus in a five-decade political career. Crowds keen to protect Turkey's official secularism booed Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan -- whose party's roots are in political Islam -- as he arrived at the state funeral in Ankara. "Turkey is secular and will remain secular," chanted members of the crowd, which a police official estimated at 50,000 to 80,000. Mainly Muslim Turkey is officially secular but defenders of secularism suspect the AK Party government of having a hidden Islamist agenda. The funeral chants follow a demonstration by secularists last Saturday (November 4), and in May some 25,000 marched in defence of secularism at the funeral of a judge shot dead by a suspected Islamist gunman. Erdogan, who attended that funeral, said earlier this year that the government posed a threat to the secular order. Secularists concerned that Erdogan may run for president -- which he has not ruled out -- shouted: "Cankaya (the presidential palace) is secular and will remain secular!" Supporters of Ecevit, the former prime minister who had a stroke in May and died on Sunday (November 5) aged 81, wore and carried pictures of the leftist nationalist politician. Some cried, waved flags and chanted: "Ecevit, man of the people." Unionists and miners wearing helmets joined the crowd, and the huge funeral was also attended by members of the cabinet, former presidents -- including one who interned Ecevit after a 1980 military coup -- and the leader and former leader of the Ankara-backed enclave in northern Cyprus. As the funeral procession drove from the mosque to the cemetery, thousands of mourners lined the streets and threw flowers onto the vehicle carrying the former leader's body. Ecevit was best known outside Turkey for ordering the invasion of Cyprus in 1974, after a Greek Cypriot coup backed by the military junta then ruling Greece. At home, the invasion won him the title "Hero of Cyprus". He won European Union candidacy for Turkey in 1999, paving the way for the start of talks in 2005 -- which are now strained by the long-running Cyprus dispute. Ecevit also presided over a deep financial crisis in 2001. Born in Istanbul on May 28, 1925, Ecevit was educated at London and Harvard universities. Before entering parliament in 1957, he was known as a writer and poet, translating T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound into Turkish. He also studied Sanskrit.

ITN Source | November 11, 2006

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