ISTANBUL - Turkey's ruling Islamists are on the defensive as a grassroots protest against state corruption, now in its fourth week, has increasingly turned its fire on the government's anti secular policies.
The Prime Minister, Mr Necmettin Erbakan, and his Islamist Welfare Party, played on a clean image to win the election in December 1995. But in a scene reminiscent of bigger gatherings elsewhere in the Balkans, crowds in Istanbul's secularist strongholds on Saturday night blew whistles, clapped in unison and shouted anti government and anti Islamist slogans.
Similar popular protests have been held each evening in Ankara and other cities and towns.