Ankara, March 3, IRNA — Iranian Ambassador to Ankara on Thursday offered condolences on demise of former Turkish prime minister Necmettin Erbakan.
Bahman Hosseinpour visited Erbakan’s Saadat (felicity) Party office in Ankara and offered the condolence to former Turkish prime minister’s only son Fatteh Erbakan.
“Erbakan is located in the hearts of Turkish nation and Muslims across the globe,” Iranian envoy said.
Hosseinpour expressed the condolences of Iranian government and nation on the demise of Erbakan to his family and party members.
Erbakan, the founder of Turkey’s modern Islamist movement, died from heart failure on Feb 27, aged 85.
“Erbakan was a scientist who devoted his life to learning. We will remember him with gratitude,” said Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, for many years one of Erbakan’s lieutenants.
Erbakan rose to prominence in the 1970s, building up a party with an Islamist appeal to the conservative rural population and urban poor in a country where religion was excluded from political life.
Erbakan served as prime minister only one year after he was forced to step down by the military.
Erbakan was a professor of engineering before becoming a politician.
