ANKARA -- She angered Turkish generals and sowed outrage in the middle classes as the midwife of turkey's first islamist-led government. in an army-led drive that shook the country, she was banished from office into political limbo.

now, five years later, as a weak government stumbles towards possible early elections, conservative opposition leader tansu ciller is back; and she is, she says, on a "historic mission" to salvage turkish democracy and the country's place in europe.

her enemies, and there are many, scoff, seeing her as someone who came close to sabotaging both.

"i feel i'm very strong, right now," said 56-year-old ciller in an interview with reuters. "many people also feel i have come to a maturity in my political career." ailing premier bulent ecevit sees ciller's opposition true path party (dyp) as key to rights reforms vital for turkey's age-old dream of european integration. his own fractious rightist coalition allies refuse support in parliament.

the dyp has emerged, after a split in the islamist bloc, as the biggest opposition group with 84 of 550 parliamentary seats.

"her party is certainly enjoying this situation after the humiliations of the past. it likes the legitimisation this brings," said murat yetkin, a commentator with radikal daily.

"whether she can turn that to influence is another matter." ciller's face framed by ash blonde hair beams from papers and television screens. her opinion is sought. she toys with the government, hinting at support while describing the weak, frail prime minister who courts her as "the greatest obstacle" to eu dreams.

dramatic, painful process ciller's party is one of the few that might clear the 10 percent threshold in polls. her support in rural areas may hold strong and she could even win back some voters who defected at the 1999 election to ecevit's nationalist action party (mhp) partners.

but memories of 1997 die hard among both liberals and arch- conservatives alarmed by her flirtation with political islam.

"it was a very dramatic and painful process for me," ciller said of the pressure from the army, business and media that led to the collapse of the government of islamist necmettin erbakan in which she served as deputy premier. history was made; no tanks rolled as had happened in the past, but the generals' will was done.

"dramatic. very painful." she paused, her eyes intense.

when she arrived in politics from academia in the early 1990s, ciller was for many a fresh breeze airing a world dominated by all-too-familiar, tired male faces.

she was young, attractive, lively, articulate, u.s.-educated. her western ways clashed with erbakan's view of a woman -- modest, pious in dress and manner and unassuming. but he also saw her as a means to an end -- the premier's office. .

after a spell as turkey's first woman prime minister, sealing a landmark customs union with the eu, she made her pact with the man she had labelled a "symbol of backwardness".

the conservative establishment, especially the army, saw erbakan as a man bent on destroying turkish democracy and imposing religious sharia law. many liberal middle class turks, especially women, saw ciller's role as a particular betrayal.

her alliance with a man so steeped in anti-eu and anti-western rhetoric also raised eyebrows in europe.

five years on, ciller undoubtedly retains a magnetism.

to find her at a crowded state reception, push your way to the epicentre of the biggest knot of male dignitaries. she works the crowd, smiling, pressing hands. she is tastefully dressed, self-assured. she looks deep into the eyes of her interlocutor.

disappointed her lessons forgotten by people ciller feels history has dealt her an injustice. she was "cornered" into allying with erbakan's welfare party. potential secularist allies turned away, parliament refused her elections.

she says that in allying with islamists she had done only what many turkish political leaders, including ecevit, had done before her.

true. the difference was however that in this case the islamists played no junior role but took the post of prime minister.

"i thought at least i could do one thing so that i could live with my conscience; that was to show people what these (militant islamists)...really are, and i think they were exposed to a great extent," she said.

she is, she says, disappointed that the turkish people have not learnt the lesson she offered. opinion polls now show the ak party, a successor to welfare, as by far the strongest.

the army, seen widely as the guardian of a frail democracy stewarded by weak politicians, might not be alone in seeing her not as victim or teacher but as miscreant in the affair.

"the armed forces are always in opposition to this kind of thing (political islam), which i respect," ciller said.

"but i also respect democracy." she feels victimised in her fall from grace, exonerated over subsequent accusations of financial misconduct.

mutual charges of corruption with conservative rival mesut yilmaz still cast a political shadow over her.

"the military were against me, the government was against me, the finance ministry; everybody. i was actually charged with certain court cases in germany because of drugs and i don't even know what drugs look like to be frank about it." "i fought and i won." ciller speaks as someone only at the start of a hard struggle back to power and well aware of her enemies "we still have obstacles, problems in communication with the media," she said with a laugh that tapered off quickly.

would she, after everything, entertain an alliance with ak? "i would try to do everything -- better new elections -- rather than form a coalition with any of those parties again." but she says the 80 percent secularist majority is riven with rivalry allowing the other 20 percent disproportionate power.

radical reform to a french-style system of two-tier polls would end this and save other politicians the cup she says was forced upon her. "if this parliament doesn't do it but if i win and come (to power), that will be the first thing i'll do." she would, she says, pursue an historic mission to bring turkey into the eu.

in turning to her for support on the eu, ecevit has signalled what might be the start of tansu ciller's return to grace. she knows better, however, than to expect political charity from those she once crossed so dramatically.