Turkish Candidate Withdraws

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
May 7, 2007
Pg. 15

By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post Foreign Service
ISTANBUL, May 6 -- The ruling party's choice for president, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, withdrew his candidacy Sunday after parliament again failed to reach a quorum, setting the stage for what many here view as decisive parliamentary elections in July.
Gul was the candidate of the Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a populist, religiously rooted movement that won a majority in parliament in 2002. Gul's nomination was approved by a majority last month, but Turkey's Constitutional Court, a stronghold of the secular establishment, invalidated the vote, ruling that with an opposition boycott, parliament lacked a necessary quorum.
After two roll calls Sunday, parliament was again short of the 367 members -- two-thirds of the body -- needed to proceed with the vote. Gul then withdrew his candidacy, though he is expected eventually to stand again.
"My candidacy is out of the question at this point," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Anatolia news agency.
The contest over Gul's candidacy has brought to the fore simmering tensions between Turkey's secular establishment and the rising profile of Erdogan's more conservative, often more rural supporters, buoyed by a booming, liberalized economy that the Justice and Development Party has presided over in its five years in power. Secularists have organized protests of tens of thousands, most recently in two western cities Saturday, and the military earlier issued a veiled warning against Gul's candidacy.
Erdogan and the party have repeatedly pledged their support for the secular ideals that have served as the foundation of the Turkish state since its creation in 1923. But many secularists, particularly those in the civil service, military and judiciary, are wary, given the party's roots in the country's Islamic movement of the 1980s and '90s. The capture of the presidency by Erdogan's party would have removed a crucial portfolio that the secular establishment has relied on to foil some of the ruling party's more conservative proposals, such as re-criminalizing adultery.
After the court ruling last week, Erdogan called for early parliamentary elections, which were set for July 22. Parliament is also debating a proposal backed by the ruling party that would allow the public, rather than parliament, to elect the president.
 
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