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Turkey 'must have secular leader'

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has pledged to adhere to secular principles if, as expected, he is elected president.

PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Tuesday that Mr Gul had been named the governing AK party's candidate.

The decision came after thousands had taken to the streets to urge Mr Erdogan not to stand.

Secularists fear that a president from the AK - a party with Islamist roots - could undermine Turkey's secular order.

Mr Gul insisted that "the president must be loyal to secular principles", adding: "If I am elected I will act accordingly".

Both Mr Erdogan and Mr Gul have wives who wear the Islamic headscarf - a highly divisive issue in Turkey.

Mr Gul defended the headscarf choice on Tuesday, saying "these are individual preferences and everybody should respect them".

Parliament will hold the first round of voting on Friday and the AK's majority means its candidate is likely to win.

Turkey has been a republic since 1923, with a strict separation of religion and the state.

The AK party has its roots in political Islam.

But correspondents say that Mr Gul is seen as less confrontational than Mr Erdogan.

Establishment pressure

Turkey's chief of staff, Gen Yasar Buyukanit, and outgoing President Ahmet Necdet Sezer have urged the new president to defend Turkey's secular values.

Speaking to the AK group in parliament, Mr Erdogan said Mr Gul was "the person who emerged at the end of our evaluations as the candidate to become Turkey's 11th president".

There will be several rounds of voting in the 550-member parliament before the new head of state takes office on 16 May.

Mr Gul, 56, has steered Turkey's European Union accession talks since becoming foreign minister in 2003.

He had a brief spell as prime minister after the AK party's election victory in November 2002.

Educated in England as well as Turkey, he is an English speaker and is regarded as a moderate, the BBC's Pam O'Toole reports.

Turkey 'must have secular leader' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6587061.stm)

Gul has "pledged to adhere to secular principles," hmmm? I wonder just how long he'll adhere to those principles. Two or three minutes, maybe?

Here's a wikipedia entry on Gul: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Gül

Note that a party he was a member of was outlawed in 1999? I did a lot of hunting before I could find any mention of why the party was banned. According to one website, it was because his party was considered "Islamist" by the Turkish government.
http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/002324.html

Gul describes Turkish-Syrian relations as excellent. http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/051014/2005101417.html


Article written by Gul chastising the U.S. for not getting involved in the Israeli-Lebanon situation sooner.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/02/AR2006080201389_pf.html


Anyone else see where this is leading? The "core issues" usually refer to Israel/Jerusalem and Judea/Samaria. The world's stance on this issue is diametrically opposed to the Bible, and the Lord's will and plans for Israel and Jerusalem.


Gul says anti-Western sentiments are rising: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5198290.stm

Gul says Turkey refused a U.S. request to attack Iran from a base in Turkey (this one is almost a year old!) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3245382,00.html

Gul wants to serve as intermediary between Israel and Syria (this is almost two years old) http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/1330_turkey_s_peace_missi.htm