Following the elections of 1999, Bülent Ecevit formed a new coalition government, which by 2000 had restored some stability. In 1999 and 2000, a series of trials were brought against members of the Welfare Party and other Islamic activists. The stability and economic reforms of 2000 ended with a severe economic crisis and a series of cabinet changes in 2001. In 2002 and 2004, parliament passed human rights laws aimed at promoting Turkey’s membership in the European Union (EU). In the 2002 parliamentary elections, the secular Islamist Justice and Development Party, indirect successor to the Welfare Party, won a substantial majority of seats in a major shift of parliamentary power. Party leader Tayyip Erdoğan, who became prime minister in 2003, was able to bring his Islamic party into the mainstream of political, economic, and social reform, thus quieting the bitter disputes between advocates of Kemalist secular policy and advocates of an Islamic state. Local elections in 2004 confirmed Erdoğan’s popularity. In June 2004, the PKK declared an end to its unilateral five-year cessation of terrorist activity, and the People’s Defense Forces, the military arm of the PKK, launched numerous attacks in Turkey during the following year. In October 2005, Turkey and the EU began accession negotiations for Turkey’s eventual EU membership, a goal supported by traditional enemy Greece. Talks were expected to last 10 years or more because the EU required a wide variety of reforms in Turkey.