Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, had to withdraw his bid to replace President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who was due to step down in May.

ECONOMIST: Turkey and its army

If Turkey's non-executive president, Necdet Sezer, now asked Mr Bahceli to head a new coalition, the IMF and EU would be appalled.

ECONOMIST: A government on the brink | The

Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Turkey 's new president, overruled a military-inspired decree permitting the government to sack bureaucrats it considered not secular enough, or too pro-Kurdish.

ECONOMIST: Bomb terror