In theory Turkey is a multiparty democracy on the Western European model, although in practice it has proved more of a semi-democracy, with the military wielding considerable power behind the scenes. There have been 57 governments since the republic's creation in 1923.
During the 1990s no one political party was able to win absolute control of parliament in elections based on proportional representation. This resulted in a series of weak coalition governments with increasing representation from parties of the extremes.
In 1999 an unlikely coalition government made up of representatives of the right-wing MMP (National Unity Party), the right-of-cen-tre ANAP (Motherland Party) and the left-wing DSP (Democratic Socialist Party) came to power. To most people's amazement it is still clinging to power despite mishandling the aftermath of the twin earthquakes of 1999 and presiding over the worst economic disaster in the republic's history. It says everything for the parlous state of Turkey's democracy that it hangs on at least in part because most of the alternatives look even less appealing.
The current prime minister is veteran Abdullah Gul, while the president is Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who emerged, seemingly from nowhere, to replace the equally veteran Suleyman Demirel. So far Sezer is proving very popular because he seems untainted by the whiff of corruption that lingers over many Turkish politicians. Likewise, Kemal Dervis., the outsider finance minister brought in to try to soil out the economic mess in 2001, gels popular support as much for what he isn't as for what be is.
In 2002 the coalition government was struggling in the face of the EU's demands for greater freedom of speech and the total abolition of the death penalty - demands that find little support among nationalists.
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