Ankara: Abdullah Gul sworn in as President of Turkey

[General Duke]

Gul sworn in as Turkish president

 

 

 

Gul has laughed off suggestions that he harbours a secret Islamist agenda [AFP]

Abdullah Gul, the current foreign minister, has been formally sworn in as Turkey's president. He is the first former Islamist to win the post in Turkey's modern history.

 

In contrast to past inaugurations, army chiefs, some of the secular establishment and the main opposition Republican People's party stayed away from the ceremony on Tuesday.Gul's wife, who wears a headscarf, which is banned in the country's public institutions, also stayed away.

 

Political analysts said that Gul faces an important test in allaying fears that his term will raise the role of religion in public life.

Parliament began voting at 3pm (12:00 GMT), and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which holds 341 seats in the 550-member parliament, had no trouble in installing Gul, 56, as president.

 

The AKP only needed an absolute majority to secure the post. In the previous two rounds in the chamber they failed because a two-thirds majority was required.

 

Two other candidatesa also stood for president.

'Fear-mongering'

 

General Yasar Buyukanit, Turkey's armed forces chief, said on Monday he saw "centres of evil" seeking to undermine the secular republic, a statement suggesting the army would not stand on the sidelines if it saw the separation between mosque and state threatened.

 

Special report

 

A series of reports on Turkey's political landscape

 

"The Turkish Armed Forces will not make any concessions ... in its duty of guarding the Turkish Republic, a secular and social state based on the rule of law," Buyukanit said in a written message.

 

Barnaby Philips, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Ankara, said: "The army sees itself as the guardian of the secular constitution [but] Gul laughs off suggestions that he harbours a secret Islamist agenda."

 

Turkish Milliyet newspaper said: "Gul's election will be a turning point in our political history that could draw us one step closer to democratic maturity."

 

Liberals dismiss concerns over the secular system - a defining feature of the Turkish republic - as "fear-mongering" undertaken by political rivals unable to match the AKP's rising popularity.

 

From Gul's first speech as president

"Secularism - one of the main principles of our republic - is a precondition for social peace as much as it is a liberating model for different lifestyles.

 

"As long as I am in office, I will embrace all our citizens without any bias. I will preserve my impartiality with the greatest of care."

 

They see Gul's presidency as symbolic of the rise of the conservative and impoverished masses who form the backbone of the AKP - people who have long been kept at the margins of politics by the army-backed secularist elite, critics argue.

 

Turkey's popular Vatan newspaper said: "Gul will not have an easy start. His every step ... will be under scrutiny by institutions and sections of society who are sensitive on secularism.

 

"Gul will neeed to be careful and make efforts to calm them."

 

'Secret agenda'

 

The headscarf debate has

beleaguered Gul [AFP]

When Gul first stood for the presidency in April, the opposition blocked his election by boycotting parliament, while the army, which has ousted four governments since 1960, warned the government that it was "ready to defend" the secular order.

 

The crisis forced Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, to call early general elections on July 22, from which the AKP emerged with a huge victory, hailing it as popular support to re-nominate Gul.

 

Opponents charge that the AKP has a secret agenda to replace Turkey's secular order with a regime more akin to an an Islamic republic.

 

Hardline secularists are also irritated by the fact that Gul's wife wears the Islamic headscarf, which they see as a symbol of defiance of the secular system.

 

But a survey published in Milliyet on Tuesday showed that the majority of Turks - 72.6 per cent - have no objections to a first lady with a headscarf, while 19.8 per cent said they would be annoyed if she covers up.

[General Duke]

Gul sworn in as Turkey's president

 

 

 

· Appointment marks win for Muslim democrats

· Prayer mats to enter residence for first time

 

Helena Smith

Wednesday August 29, 2007

The Guardian

Turkey's foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, a practising Muslim and former Islamist, was yesterday sworn in as the 11th president of the staunchly secular republic in a move that will be seen as a defining moment for the country.

Mr Gul's ascent to the post came after 339 MPs - two short of the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development (AK) party's presence in the 550-seat parliament - voted for the British-educated economist, in the third round of a presidential election that required a simple majority to clinch the job.

 

The appointment of the 56-year-old, who played a major part in the rise of political Islam during the 1990s, marked a victory for the governing Muslim democrats over the military and bureaucratic elite that has controlled the country since its modern foundation 84 years ago.

For the first time, prayer mats will enter the presidential palace and, even more scandalously for secularists, so will a headscarf-wearing first lady in the form of Hayrunisa Gul, the new president's equally pious wife.

 

Within minutes of being sworn in, Mr Gul vowed to remain neutral in his new role. "Secularism - one of the main principles of our republic - is a precondition for social peace as much as it is a liberating model for different lifestyles," he said. "As long as I am in office, I will embrace all our citizens without bias. I will preserve my impartiality with the greatest of care."

 

Mr Gul, who has won plaudits for his handling of Turkey's bid to join the EU, said it was vital that the predominantly Muslim state push ahead with modernising reforms - a sign that, as promised, he will also be a more active president, promoting Turkey's role in the world.

 

Mr Gul is also expected to leave the AK party, which he helped found, to impress his declared aim of impartiality on sceptics. Three months ago, Turkey was thrown into political crisis after Mr Gul was nominated for the job by his ally, the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

 

The prospect of the affable anglophile being elected to the position - which carries immense veto powers - prompted an outpouring of vitriol, exposing the hatred between secularists and more religious-minded Turks, and pushing millions of protesters onto the streets after the army also threatened to intervene.

 

To end the crisis, the mildly Islamic Justice and Development (AK) party called early elections, a gambit that paid off when it was returned to power with a resounding 47% of the vote last month.

 

The election has been seen as a test case of the army's respect for democratic processes in the country. But highlighting the polarisation that Mr Gul's candidacy has caused - and fears that the neo-Islamists are bent on dismantling Turkey's secular foundations - the head of the armed forces, General Yasar Buyukanit, again warned of the threat to secularism by "centres of evil" on the eve of the ballot. The warning was interpreted as proof that Turkey's generals will not stand by if the president chips away at the country's divide between the state and religion.

 

His first challenge will come tomorrow when as commander in chief of the armed forces he will be the guest of honour at the military-led Victory Day celebrations marking Turkey's War of Independence against the Greeks and other allies. The big question is whether Mr Gul will risk the generals' wrath by taking his veiled wife with him.

[NASSIR]

As known, the islamist Turkey has long sought their country's economic integration with Europe

 

EU chief welcomes election of Gul

 

BRUSSELS, Belgium: The European Union welcomed Abdullah Gul's election as Turkey's new president Tuesday, hoping it will lead to further economic and political reforms needed for the country to move closer to the bloc.

 

Recent parliamentary elections and Tuesday's parliamentary vote electing Gul as Turkey's new head of state "represents a considerable achievement for Turkey and the Turkish people," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.

 

In a statement, Barroso hoped the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan "will be able to resume work ... to give fresh, immediate and positive impetus" to EU entry talks Turkey started with the 27-nation bloc.

 

EU officials had been privately concerned over warnings by Turkish generals, which voiced their opposition to Gul's bid to become president of Turkey. The EU, however, took no position on the internal debate in Turkey over Gul's Islamic views or concerns voiced by opposition groups that Gul's presidency would put Turkey's secular state at risk.

 

Gul's election took place a day after the military, which has ousted four governments since 1960, issued a stern warning about the threat to secularism. Gul's initial bid for president was blocked over fears that he planned to dilute secular traditions.

 

In his former role as foreign minister, Gul worked closely with EU officials in recent years to spur on Turkey's bid to join the EU, which Gul strongly backs.

 

Gul opened membership negotiations with EU foreign ministers in October 2005, but those talks have made little progress, with talks only opened in two out of the 35 policy areas, where Turkey must implement EU legislation.

 

Progress came to a virtual standstill late last year when EU leaders decided to partially suspend negotiations in protest at Ankara's refusal to open its ports to trade with EU member Cyprus.

 

Turkey does not recognize the government of Cyprus, which has led to a standoff between Brussels and Ankara over the membership bid.

 

Rene van der Linden, president of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly in Strasbourg, France, also welcomed Gul's election calling him a "modern reformer"

[General Duke]

The AK party have gained both the top posts of Turkey. Well done indeed.

 

 

[Kashafa]

Heh. The irony of this thread. Two avowed secularists congratulating the 'Islamist' AK party and Abdullah Gul on their landslide victory.

 

Can you feel the wave(of Islamic revival), boys ? Hamas in Palestine. Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. And now, Gul and the AK party are the newest kids to join the block party. Watch for Somalia to gate-crash that party, soon inshallah. Enjoy

[Ms DD]

The secularists have made a religion out of their secularism. They were against someone with an islamist background becoming president even if he claims that he is willing to follow the principles of the secular state. This is analogous to barring a non Islamic person from becoming president in a democratic country with an Islamic constitution where on paper anyone can become president.

[Dhagax-Tuur]

Now is the time for him to sack the generals! They're pain in the back side, aren't they? Why would they intervene the people's choice everytime? This lot are worse than the Ethiopian regime!

 

Think of this. Iran = Islamic republic, Turkey = Islamic republic. Allies give up on Iraq and Islamists stabilise it and take power. The Gulf girls will come running and the middle east politics has all new meaning. Alle waxba uma aha, is it?

[Jacaylbaro]

Not that easy sxb .... that will come after a lot of bloodshed ,, those gangs never give up that easy

[General Duke]

Kashafa who is a secularist? Or did you belive your warlords lies to that extend. Adeer do not err, Xasan Dahir and Sharif Ahmed are not priests who can interevene on ones behalf.

 

A bunch of looters calling others names.

[Resistance]

^ a secularist is those that refuse to apply Sharia as their way of governance.

[General Duke]

^^^Adeer who is a gainst Shariah? In Somalia those who are against it are the same ones who occupied other Muslim's farms, houses and so on.

[Resistance]

^ did i specify who is against nor who is for it, i just made a clarifcation of what or who can be termed a secularist.

Now am sure the average can look and plainly see the TFG hadly practice or implement Sharia .. so terming them a secularist is fair.

Even the foreign media and Somali observers regularly refer to them as a seculer gov .. as opposed to the Islamist Courts ..

[General Duke]

^^^Adeer the courts were a clan entity which used clan militias to occupy, looot, kill and empower the clan. As any average person would tell you there is no place for such actions under Shariah law.

 

Islam is a pure faith, and its laws should be applied to every Muslim nation.

[Emperor]

Turkey's Gul Approves Cabinet List

By VOA News

29 August 2007

 

 

Turkey's new President Abdullah Gul, foreground, arrives for a graduation ceremony at the Military Medical Academy in Ankara, 29 Aug 2007

Turkey's new President Abdullah Gul has approved a Cabinet list proposed by the prime minister, a move watched closely by the country's secularists.

 

Mr. Gul approved the nominees of his ally, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Wednesday one day after taking the oath of office.

 

Succeeding Mr. Gul as foreign minister will be Ali Babacan, the former economy minister who is also Turkey's chief negotiator in its bid to join the European Union.

 

Mr. Gul is from the ruling Justice and Development Party. The Islamist-oriented party won a landslide victory in last month's general election.

 

The secular opposition has said it will be watching Mr. Gul for signs of bias.

 

The new president has pledged neutrality between Turkey's secularists, including the military, and the country's more religious elements, and to uphold the nation's strong secular traditions separating government and religion.

 

The military did not attend the swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.

 

President Bush and other world leaders have congratulated Mr. Gul on his election. Mr. Bush stressed the U.S. commitment to a strong relationship with Turkey.

 

Mr. Gul was elected with 339 votes in the 550-seat parliament in a third round of voting, when only a simple majority was needed. He had failed to win the two-thirds majority needed for victory in the first or second round of voting.

 

A separate nomination for Mr. Gul as president earlier this year sparked a political crisis in which thousands of secularists took to the streets to protest his candidacy.

 

Mr. Gul's wife wears an Islamic headscarf, which has been banned in Turkey's public offices and schools for nearly three decades.

[Resistance]

what is it with you brother, every sentence u write u want include the following the words' courts, clan, looters etc. give it a rest marka.

 

the discusion here of the TFG and wheather they a Secular entity or not , as i said the current evidence points that way, thats all.