Resignations leave Ecevit's ruling coalition in tatters

The ruling coalition of Turkey's Prime Minister, Bulent Ecevit, was on the brink of collapse yesterday after four ministers and at least 15 MPs resigned, amid mounting pressure for early elections because of the leader's ill-health

Husamettin Ozkan, the Deputy Prime Minister and formerly Mr Ecevit's right-hand man, was the first to quit his post and the Democratic Left (DSP) party after meeting the 77-year-old Mr Ecevit for an hour. Mr Ecevit and his politically influential wife, Rahsan, founders of the DSP, earlier claimed Mr Ozkan failed to support the pair in the face of Mr Ecevit's long illness.

Mr Ozkan's resignation was the last straw for many in the DSP, a party that is already strained between factions loyal to the Ecevits and many others who are seeking to appease public frustration and appoint a successor to the PM.

Within minutes, further top-level resignations followed, including Istemihan Talay, the Culture Minister, and Recep Onal, the State Minister. More MPs were expected to quit.

With the resignations, Mr Ecevit's party is no longer the largest in parliament and will now be second to the nationalists. The nationalists have strongly opposed Mr Ecevit's efforts to pass EU-demanded legislation that would abolish the death penalty and allow minority Kurds to teach and broadcast in Kurdish.

Omer Tarkan, a commentator on NTV television, said: "The largest party in parliament has begun to fall apart; this is tremendously important."

Turkey has been on the verge of political collapse since Mr Ecevit, who is seen as the glue holding together an unlikely left-right coalition, was first taken to hospital in early May.

A string of ailments has left him unable to work. Slurred speech, several major public blunders and an inability to sit for longer than a few minutes have fuelled speculation he suffers from an auto-immune illness affecting his nervous system. Despite calls to step down and appoint a successor, Mr Ecevit, a veteran Turkish politician, has refused to relinquish power. In a rare TV appearance on Sunday, he said he was hurt by the calls and had no intention of stepping down.

The timing of the political crisis could not be worse for Turkey as it struggles to reverse the worst economic recession in its post-1945 history that has made it the International Monetary Fund's biggest debtor with $16bn (£10bn) in loans. Every day of political turmoil sees the currency and stock markets plunge further.

The resignations came as Mr Ecevit's coalition partner, Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), said he would move to recall parliament for early elections in November. The MHP must muster 110 signatures to recall parliament.

Four senior members of the biggest opposition party, True Path (DYP), joined the call. A simple majority is required to set elections a minimum of three months after the vote. That would seem assured. Autumn elections would disrupt Turkey's self-imposed end-of-year deadline to pass important human rights reforms sought by the European Union if it is to start accession talks with the bloc next year. Progress on the reforms has been slow, with the government's left and right wings bickering over moves to abolish the death penalty and lift all restrictions on use of the Kurdish language.

Opinion polls suggest the current coalition parties could all fail to clear the 10 per cent threshold to parliament. The tough IMF economic programme has not been popular with Turkish voters.

If elections were held now, the big winner could be the Islamist AK Party, viewed warily by the powerful army for its Islamist roots.

The generals, a behind-the-scenes force in Turkish politics, in 1997 forced Turkey's first Islamist coalition government from power in what was called a "soft coup".