Ankara: Turkey paid homage today to former President and Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel, with a state funeral for a national political giant who died this week aged 90.
Demirel's coffin was placed in front of the parliament building where dignitaries including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu paid their respects.
Escorted by the presidential guard the coffin was then paraded through the streets of Ankara to the Kocatepe mosque for a funeral ceremony.
His heyday was during one of the most chaotic periods of modern Turkish history when governments changed sometimes annually under the shadow of the powerful military, and the country was beset by daily street violence and an economic slump.
He died on Wednesday of heart failure resulting from a severe respiratory tract infection, the official Anatolia news agency said.
Critics accused him of being a political chameleon, happy to make common cause with the far right on occasion but also with the Islamists led by Necmettin Erbakan, the father of political Islam in Turkey.
Demirel's coffin was placed in front of the parliament building where dignitaries including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu paid their respects.
Escorted by the presidential guard the coffin was then paraded through the streets of Ankara to the Kocatepe mosque for a funeral ceremony.
His heyday was during one of the most chaotic periods of modern Turkish history when governments changed sometimes annually under the shadow of the powerful military, and the country was beset by daily street violence and an economic slump.
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He died on Wednesday of heart failure resulting from a severe respiratory tract infection, the official Anatolia news agency said.
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Critics accused him of being a political chameleon, happy to make common cause with the far right on occasion but also with the Islamists led by Necmettin Erbakan, the father of political Islam in Turkey.
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