FIVE deputies quit parties in Turkey's outgoing Islamic led coalition yesterday, enhancing the chances of the rival conservative party leader, Mr Mesut Yilmaz, of forming a new government.
Mr Yilmaz was asked by President Suleyman Demirel a week ago to form a government after the former prime minister, Mr Necmettin Erbakan, resigned in the face of threats from the secular military to his year old pro Islamist government.
Mr Yilmaz, who heads the Motherland party, has been negotiating with other anti Islamist parties on the formation of a new administration.
One deputy resigned from Mr Erbakan's Welfare Party (Refah), while four others said they were leaving the True Path Party (DYP) led by the outgoing foreign minister, Ms Tansu Ciller.
The defections leave Refah with 154 seats and the DYP with 109 seats in the 550 strong parliament, and strengthen Mr Yilmaz's chances of surviving a vote of confidence.
Ms Ciller, Mr Erbakan and their ally Mr Muhsin Yazicioglu, the leader of a small far right party, have vigorously objected to the formation of a new government led by Mr Yilmaz and claim he will lose a confidence vote.
However the fifth defection yesterday - that of Mr Tekin Enercm, the former DYP deputy for Istanbul robbed the Ciller Erbakan Yazicioglu alliance of a parliamentary majority.
And their alliance is increasingly strained, mainly due to the rising number of deputies abandoning Ms Ciller's party.
Her party has been plagued by defections in the last year from members angry at Ms Ciller's alliance with the Islamists.
Meanwhile, Mr Husamettin Cindoruk, leader of the Party for a Democratic Turkey, said he would not personally take up the post of deputy prime minister offered him by Mr Yilmaz but would pass it on to his colleague, Mr Ismet Sezgin.
Mr Bulent Ecevit, leader of the Democratic Left, would get a second deputy premiership.
In Amsterdam, Ms Ciller said that Turkey's inclusion at a meeting there for prospective future EU members was an historic moment in its more than 30 year quest for acceptance in the union.
But the EU quickly made clear that the end of the secular Muslim state's long pilgrimage to win a place in Christian Europe is not yet in sight.
"The very fact that we are here today is an historic moment and an indication of the progress that has been made," Ms Ciller told reporters after an EU briefing to 12 aspirant member countries to explain the state of the EU after the recent Amsterdam summit.
Leaders from 10 eastern European candidates for EU entry were at the briefing, along with those from Cyprus and Turkey.
"Since 1963 we have been an applicant and for the first time we have achieved equal status with all the other applicants," Ms Ciller said.
However, the Dutch Prime Minister, Mr Wim Kok, was quick to dampen any expectations that Turkey's membership claims, long stalled by Greek objections and human rights concerns, had advanced at all.
"The status quo has not changed in any way following today's meeting," he said, adding that Turkey had been invited because it was practical to talk to all aspirants together.