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Turkey Parliament elects Abdullah Gul as President
29.8.2007 |
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August 29, 2007
ANKARA, -- Turkey’s Parliament on Tuesday
elected foreign minister Abdullah Gul — the ruling
Islamist rooted AKP party’s candidate — as President
in a third round of voting.
Mr Gul, who needed a simple majority of 276 votes
from the 550 seat parliament to be elected, garnered
339 votes.
A total 112 members of the main opposition
secularist People’s Republican Party (CHP) boycotted
the third round as it had the previous two. The
pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party’s 20 members
cast blank votes and the Nationalist Movement Party
and Democratic Left Party supported their own
candidates.
Mr Gul’s candidacy sparked deep controversy in
Turkey with secularist and the army alleging it
marked a threat to the country’s secular nature. The
CHP boycotted the previous presidential election on
April 27 and applied to the constitutional court
claiming a quorum of 367 deputies was needed for a
valid vote. |
New elected Turkish President Abdullah Gul waves
after he received his official election document in
Ankara August 28, 2007 |
On the same day, Turkey’s powerful military issued a
statement threatening to intervene if the country’s
secular structure was threatened. At the time,
hundreds of thousands of secular supporters took to
the streets in major cities to protest against Mr
Gul’s candidacy.
However, the AKP’s sweeping election victory in July
22 parliamentary elections in which it took more
than 46 per cent of the votes cast, made the Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other influential
politicians in the party insist on Mr Gul’s
candidacy.
"The July 22 parliamentary elections was at the same
time like a referendum for the presidency of
Abdullah Gul. People showed us that they want to see
Gul as the President," AKP deputy chairman Dengir
Mir Mehmet Firat said.
Although Gul has previously announced that his
Islamist ideals are a thing of the past, he is still
perceived as a danger by secularist.
One of Gul's sons attended the ceremony, but his
wife, Hayrunnisa, did not. She wears an
Islamic-style head scarf, which is banned in
government offices and schools and is viewed by
secularists as a troubling symbol of religious
fervor, and even militancy. Some who wear the
headscarf say the Turkish state's restrictions on
Islamic attire amount to a curb on freedom of
expression.
Turkey's president has the power to veto legislation
and official appointments, and Gul has failed to
allay secularist fears that he would gladly approve
any initiatives of the government of Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a close ally.
Erdogan said he planned to submit his new Cabinet to
Gul for his approval Wednesday. Erdogan had
presented his list earlier this month to outgoing
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who said the new
president should approve it.
"I hope (Gul's presidency) is beneficial to the
country, the people and the republic," Erdogan said.
"God willing, together, shoulder to shoulder, we
will carry Turkey forward."
Gul took the post from Sezer, a staunch secularist,
in a low-key ceremony that was closed to the media.
On his way out of the palace, Sezer stopped his car
to say goodbye to guards and journalists.
"Keep well!," he said. Outside the palace gates,
secularist Turks waved Turkish flags, threw flowers
at his vehicle and shouted: "We are proud of you!"
Police also prevented two dozen demonstrators who
were protesting Gul's election from approaching the
palace.
Gul failed to win the presidency in two rounds of
voting last week because the ruling Justice and
Development Party lacked the two-thirds majority in
parliament needed for him to secure the post. But
the party — which holds 341 of the 550 seats — had a
far easier hurdle Tuesday, when only a simple
majority was required.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Tom
Casey said the United States welcomed "this exercise
in Turkish democracy. We think it continues the
course of democratic development in that country."
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso
said he hoped the government "will be able to resume
work ... to give fresh, immediate and positive
impetus" to EU entry talks.
AP | AKI
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan ( Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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