ANKARA,
August 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Former Prime Minister
Necmettin Erbakan, announced Thursday, August 22, that he will run as an
independent candidate for the Turkish Parliament elections in snap polls
in November.
The
76-year-old veteran threw his support behind the opposition Saadet
(Felicity) Party, the successor of his Welfare Party which was banned in
1998 for undermining the secular system of the mainly Muslim nation.
"The
Saadet Party is the solution towards salvation... Voting for Saadet is
voting for Turkey's future," Erbakan told a press conference.
He
accused mainstream parties of selling out national interests to the West
and said economic woes plaguing Turkey were the result of a Western plot
to devastate the country, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
His
speech was frequently interrupted by bursts of applause from party
supporters, who chanted "Mujahedeen Erbakan" and "Erbakan
for Prime Minister."
Erbakan
became Turkey's first Islamist premier in 1996 but was forced to resign
only after a year in office as a result of a harsh secularist campaign
led by the powerful Turkish military, AFP said.
The
constitutional court outlawed his Welfare Party in 1998 and banned
Erbakan from politics for five years. Welfare's successor, the Virtue
Party, was also banned in 2001 on the same grounds.
The
party then split into two groups, the Saadet Party, which many say is
run by Erbakan behind the scene, and the moderate Justice and
Development Party (AK), which rejected Erbakan's heritage.
The
AK party, which says it has learned lessons from the past and is seeking
to recast itself as a pro-Western conservative centrist movement, is
currently leading opinion polls with about 20 percent of the vote.
Erbakan
is widely expected to challenge his political ban, which ends next year,
and stand in the election as an independent candidate.
Although
he was sentenced to imprisonment by court for embezzlement, which
prevents him from being elected as a deputy, Erbakan nevertheless hopes
to become an independent deputy as the Court of Cassation is yet to
approve the verdict
