More likely to benefit is Tansu Ciller, whose True Path Party formed that ill-fated coalition with Welfare and is now in opposition.

ECONOMIST: Turkey

Fearing his supporters' wrath, Mr Erbakan refused to close the Imam Hatips, thus irritating his coalition partner, the more secular True Path Party.

ECONOMIST: Turkey: Fall out, that man | The

One possible outcome is another coalition between Messrs Yilmaz and Ecevit, but this time joined by Tansu Ciller, the woman who leads the True Path party.

ECONOMIST: Turkey

This is not because her True Path Party is in good shape: more than a tenth of its members of parliament have left the party since last June, when it formed a coalition government with Mr Erbakan's Welfare Party.

ECONOMIST: Turkey