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| Europe |
| Gul Elected Turkey's President |
| 2007-08-28 |
| Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was elected Turkey's first president with an Islamist past, risking fresh tensions with the army over religion's role in government. Gul beat two opponents in a third round of balloting at parliament in Ankara today, Parliamentary Speaker Koksal Toptan told lawmakers. The former Islamic Development Bank economist got 339 votes, 63 more than the simple majority required. Gul will take the oath for his seven-year term later today. Turkey's military, which has ousted four governments since 1960, has clashed with Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the separation of mosque and state. The generals blocked Gul's first run for president in April, forcing an early general election, when they warned that he might undermine the secular order established in Turkey eight decades ago after the Ottoman Empire collapsed. ``People are worried that Erdogan's government is getting control of all levers of power,'' Ilter Turkmen, who served as foreign minister after a military coup in 1980, said in an interview. ``I am worried that there will now be continuous tension between the army and the government, and the military could make Gul's life miserable.'' The head of the army, General Yasar Buyukanit, repeated the military's warning to the government on secularism in a statement yesterday to mark Victory Day on Aug. 30. The military is determined to stop ``sneaky plans aimed at removing the republic's achievements,'' Buyukanit said. Limited Role The European Union, considering Turkey's membership application, has said Turkey should reduce the army's role in politics. Buyukanit leads the second-largest standing army in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after the U.S. military. The army says secularism must be preserved to keep Turkey on its European path and away from the influence of Islamic states in the neighboring Middle East. Gul has led Turkey's EU membership talks since negotiations began in October 2005. Gul ``should enter into a dialogue with his critics without delay, so he can be recognized as a president for all Turks,'' EU parliament member Joost Lagendijk said in an e-mailed statement, praising Gul's record as foreign minister. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called on Turkey to ``give fresh, immediate and positive impetus'' to EU membership talks. Erdogan renominated Gul for the presidency after cementing his hold on power in the July 22 general election, when Justice won 47 percent of the vote -- the biggest share for any party since 1965. Islamist Past Gul, 56, and Erdogan, 53, both belonged to the Welfare Party that was ousted from power in 1997 by a military-led public campaign and later banned by the Constitutional Court for mixing Islam with politics. Welfare advocated closer relations with Libya and Iran, accused Western nations of immorality and encouraged women to wear Islamic-style headscarves. As president, Gul will be required to approve or veto government legislation. Should he give the green light to steps such as lifting curbs on the wearing of headscarves by Muslim women in government buildings, it might renew tensions with the army. The military demands unwavering loyalty to the secular code of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's founder. The outgoing president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, is an ally of the military who was chief judge of the Constitutional Court when Welfare was shut down. He used his veto to block measures put forward by Erdogan in his first term to make adultery punishable by jail and allowing trainee clergymen to study at university. Military Focus The president is of particular importance to Turkey's military because he is their commander in chief. In addition to veto powers over laws passed by parliament, the head of state also appoints top judges and bureaucrats. Gul ``is going to be walking a tightrope,'' said Wolfango Piccoli, an analyst at Eurasia Group in London. ``He doesn't have much room for maneuver.'' The military will expect Gul to honor pledges made over the past two weeks to protect Turkey's secular ideology and remain above party politics. Those promises won him support from Turkey's biggest business groups and unions. A confrontation with the military under the new president might not be far away. Erdogan told reporters he plans to ask Gul to approve his new Cabinet tomorrow. Erdogan may then request that Gul approve a backlog of appointments to the bureaucracy rejected by Sezer that stirred trouble with the army. Many of the recruits are pious Muslims. Market Conditions For investors, the question of whether Gul can avoid a clash with the military has gained in importance because of current global market conditions, said Tolga Ediz, an emerging-markets strategist at Lehman Brothers in London. ``We think that Mr. Gul's action during his first few months in office -- the time he spends scrutinizing legislation, the care he takes in appointments, the tone he takes in speeches -- will contain critical signals,'' Ediz said. ``He might find himself the object of attack as political stability disintegrates.'' Tensions with the army may also resurface if Gul breaks with tradition and invites his wife, Hayrunnisa, who wears a headscarf, along with other devout wives of Justice party deputies to state receptions. Gul worked as an economist at the Islamic Development Bank in Saudi Arabia between 1983 and 1991. He returned to Turkey to become a lawmaker for Welfare, which headed a coalition government in 1995. Erdogan and Gul formed the Justice party in 2001. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #13 Anyone have a screenshot of Gul Dukat? |
| Posted by: Korora 2007-08-28 20:20 |
| #12 Mr. Gul is not an Islamist the way Zawahiri is (for example). I've read several interviews with the man, and he comes across as a thoughtful fellow who is religious and wants to serve the state. He's made clear that he does not want sharia or anything close to that for Turkey. That's as may be, but on his watch attacks against non-Muslim and Secularist persons and property have increased; the Orthodox Church's seminary remains closed, yet the government forbids the importation of priests and the elevation of any but a Turk to head the Church in Turkey; and, physical attacks on foreigners seen as proselytizing have included torture and murder, as reported in Rantburg. Regardless of Prime Minister Erdogan's personal beliefs about religion in the public square, there are plenty who've taken his election as license, and I haven't heard PM Erdogan or his representatives so much as publicly abjure such actions, let alone seek conviction of the miscreants and remediation for the victims. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-08-28 19:28 |
| #11 "Muslem, but not an Islamist" = "A little bit pregnant". |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2007-08-28 17:56 |
| #10 Make no mistake the AKP are islamists. In their previous incarnation, the Welfare Party, they implemented tenants of sharia, like banning alcohol, until the military banned them. Erdogan and the AKP won't be so brazen again without the power to back them up. Like other muslims in the west, they are hiding their fangs until they can replace the armed secular men with their own. Taqiyya against their lesser brothers. That is a generational project. The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 1998 |
| Posted by: ed 2007-08-28 17:45 |
| #9 I made this comment as well at LGF: Mr. Gul is not an Islamist the way Zawahiri is (for example). I've read several interviews with the man, and he comes across as a thoughtful fellow who is religious and wants to serve the state. He's made clear that he does not want sharia or anything close to that for Turkey. Sure, of course he might be lying through his teeth (he's a politician in the Middle East), but at least in these interviews he seems better than that. His party has done a better job than most in actually running Turkey (see Gordon's post #163), and having one's wife wear a headscarf does not mean the imminent imposition of a caliphate. The Turkish hard-core seculars could make things much worse by staging a coup -- forget the EU (please), but a coup with a subsequent tanking of the economy, civil strife and disorder could pave the way for true, hard-core Islamicists to make their move. And: predictably, I was trashed for saying this at LGF :-) |
| Posted by: Steve White 2007-08-28 16:18 |
| #8 lol Mike |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-08-28 16:01 |
| #7 I smell "Northern Kurdistan"... |
| Posted by: mojo 2007-08-28 15:48 |
| #6 Why, the nerve of 'em! The unmitigated Gul! |
| Posted by: Mike 2007-08-28 13:04 |
| #5 So has Jimmy certified the election yet? You can't be a real 2 bit head-in-the-ass tyrant until Jimmy has come hugged you and said how great you are. Then when he announces how fair your elections were, you can be a real tyrant like Chavez or Jimmy's other terrorist friends. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2007-08-28 13:01 |
| #4 Who bets Saudi funded his election!!!!! |
| Posted by: Paul 2007-08-28 12:47 |
| #3 "The military will expect Gul to honor pledges made over the past two weeks to protect Turkey's secular ideology and remain above party politics." A little taqiya here, a little hudna there, and investments now in scarf futures will hit it big. |
| Posted by: Phinater Thraviger 2007-08-28 12:41 |
| #2 Hopefully there is a coup and the military puts a squash on this bullshit. Otherwise, Turkey is now in our crosshairs. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-08-28 12:32 |
| #1 So long Turkey, We hardly knew ye! Good luck with EU thing. |
| Posted by: SCpatriot@work 2007-08-28 11:47 |