Only a few weeks ago, Tansu Ciller, the country's first female Prime Minister, was on the political ropes. Her rightist True Path Party had lost its junior coalition partner, the left-of-center Republican People's Party, and, a few weeks later, had fallen to a no-confidence vote. Undaunted, Ciller, 49, persuaded President Suleyman Demirel to let her try again. Demonstrating unprecedented readiness to compromise--"She showed that she can dance with the wolves," says a Western diplomat--the sinking Prime Minister recaulked the coalition with the Republicans by conceding her old/new partners greater weight in the Cabinet and agreeing to their demand for early elections. Last week Ciller easily won a confidence vote for her re-formed government and sailed on into her third year in office.

Now she must deal with two looming critical events: a vote by the European Parliament on whether to admit Turkey to the European customs union--a proposition under discussion since 1963--and the agreed-on parliamentary elections in late December or early January.

Ciller is upbeat on both counts. Under pressure by the European Parliament, which has linked customs-union membership to greater democratization and improvements in Turkey's human-rights performance, she has pushed through measures aimed at decentralizing government and, more important, weakening--though not abolishing in their entirety--the freedom-of-expression limitations of a harsh antiterrorism law. She hopes that the actions will be sufficient to bring around the 40 or so European MPs who still harbor doubts about Turkish admission to the customs union. Rejection by Strasbourg of Ankara's quest or even a delay in coming to a decision, she warns, will weaken secular democratic forces in her country and give weight to the anti-Europe preachments of the ascendant Refah, or Welfare Party, a well-organized and well-financed Islamist group--with potentially damaging repercussions at the ballot box.

As she explained last week in an interview at her official residence in Ankara with TIME editor-at-large Karsten Prager and correspondent James Wilde, the outcome of the European and Turkish votes will have profound consequences, not just for Turkey but for Europe and its relations with the Islamic world at its gate.

TIME: Will the European Parliament vote yes, and why is that so important? Ciller: The European Commission has congratulated us for meeting all the regulatory requirements for membership. Now the European Parliament has to make its decision. It can say either yes or no--there is no third alternative. Delay means no to me and to all the people of Turkey; if nothing else, the [Islamist] fundamentalists will make sure that it is understood as a no. And it is not just Turkey that is concerned here: there are also the millions of Turkic-speaking people of Central Asia who are looking at two models: ours or the Iranians'.

TIME: You see a wider context then? Ciller: My mission is not just getting Turkey into Europe. I see my task as changing history because Turkey can become a bridge for peace between these two areas. If it does not, the two regions will be divided and in confrontation with each other. We can be the link. We are democratic; we are secular; and our economy is the first open, sophisticated economy in the area. If Europe says nay to us, it is saying nay to a future that could bring two cultures together to live in harmony. A no vote would give the upper hand to fundamentalists in the whole area, not just in Turkey.

TIME: Do you feel you have done your part in this effort? Ciller: Six months ago, I said we were going to do a number of things that had to do with the economy and with democratization. Nobody believed we could do it. I said that beyond media reform--we have moved from one public-television station to 16 and to 300 new local channels--I would deliver a package of democratization measures. I said we would make sure that power would be transferred from the central government to local governments; that law has been passed. I said we would be changing a constitution that had not been changed in over 100 years [to allow broader participation in politics and lower the voting age to 18]. That was done rapidly and with the required two-thirds majority in Parliament.

As for freedom of speech, I said we would change Article 8 [of the antiterrorism law], and I achieved that with a minority government after a vote of no confidence. That was miraculous. Already 79 people have been released from custody, and many more will leave prison. There are more than 1,000 cases in the courts that will be dropped. This is not just cosmetics. I have done everything I said I would. Now is the time to recognize that. It is not the time to judge Turkey. The European parliamentarians should live up to what they said they would do. I did.

TIME: To what degree will the customs-union issue affect the elections? Ciller: It will be a major issue. The radicals, the fundamentalists and the extreme rightists will capitalize on any delay in the decision as a no vote and as an objection to Turkey by Europe. They will make sure that is understood by the people. So it is going to strengthen the radicals and may even move them into power--move the anti-Europe, antidemocratization, anti-Westernization, antisecular forces into power.

TIME: Why so strong a reaction? Ciller: Turks are a proud people, a people with much history behind them. If Europe, after 32 years, rejects Turkey one more time, after all the effort we have put in, the reaction would be: All right, we don't want you either.

TIME: Where would the country go then? Ciller: It's not just where this country goes; it's where the whole region goes. It's what happens to Europe. It's not only about Turkey.

TIME: How do you assess your situation and the rise of the Islamists in the country? Ciller: Now it's me versus them. I represent Westernization, secular government, liberalization, the link with Europe. That's why I got such popular support when I became Prime Minister.

TIME: Do the Islamists present you with your strongest challenge? Ciller: I'm a Muslim myself, so we should not say the Islamists. It is the radicals, the fundamentalists--just like Christians and Jews have fundamentalists, and we have just seen what radicals did to [Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin. We have to fight the radicals.

TIME: Is the Kurdish rebellion in southeastern Turkey still a major threat? Ciller: Its back is broken. It has moved outside Turkey, into northern Iraq. I really believe that. People in the southeast trust me not because I have done a military job; you first have to make sure that you bring security to people, to children, to teachers. You have to restore normal life before anyone will invest there, before many other things can happen. So I look at security as a first step--and people understand that.

TIME: Why has it taken the government so long to, say, allow broadcasting in the Kurdish language? Ciller: Well, I also have many questions to ask about European countries. Why are Turkish women and children being burned in the middle of Germany, for instance?

TIME: How do you, a woman, explain your political achievements in a society dominated by men? Ciller: I think of myself not so much as a woman but as a human being and someone who brings change. But I'm also a mother, someone who gives her people a mother's love--as well as a mother's authority.