Every time in the past four decades that the generals have taken over Turkey's government, Bulent Ecevit has made a bold if quixotic stand against them. As a journalist in 1960, he railed against their "totalitarian designs". When they staged a second coup 11 years later, he resigned as secretary-general of the left-wing Republican People's Party in protest against its leader's apparent backing for the takeover. And in 1980 he stepped down as the party's chairman, saying he did not want to be "bound by the curbs imposed by soldiers on party leaders". He was jailed three times and banned from politics for ten years. Mr Ecevit, whose party won the most votes in the general election on April 18th, is an undeniably courageous survivor. He is likely to become Turkey's prime minister for the fifth time in 25 years. Has he made his peace with the generals? Will they push him around? What will he do?
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