[NYTr] "Islamic-Rooted" Abndullah Gul Elected President in Turkey

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[There's much more to be said about this story. Modern Turkey itself
was founded by a secular reformist, Kamal Ata Turk, who wanted to drag
Turkey out of religious-ruled theocratic tribalism into a secular form
of state (much as Reza Pahlevi, the military dictator father of the
deposed Shah of Iran, did in his country). Islam remained, though
perhaps furtively, an important cultural, economic and political
force in both countries.  In Turkey, brutal military rule has struggled
against both Islamic and Kurdish Independence forces. Abdullah Gul
opposed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and in fact the Turkish
Parliament was forced by public opinion to deny the US use of its
territory for the northern part of its Iraq invasion -- despite
Turkey's formerly very accommodating relationship with the US and
extensive military cooperation going back decades.  The US base at
Incerlik in Turkey was a major platform for Gulf War I and for the
years-long bombing of Iraq during the decade thereafter.  It's also
been an important staging area for various other US military adventures
over the years.  But in the end, Turkey refused to allow the US
military permission to invade Iraq's north from its territory, in what
was perhaps the most devastating early blow to Rumsfeld's original
pie-in-the-sky war plan, forcing all invasion troops to travel up from
Kuwait in the south. From then on, things only went from bad to worse,
as we know.-NYTransfer]

The Washington Post - Aug 28, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082800223_pf.html

Islamic-Rooted President Wins in Turkey

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service

CAIRO, Aug. 28 -- Abdullah Gul, a devout Muslim with roots in political
Islam, won parliamentary election Tuesday as Turkey's president in
defiance of the country's secular generals.

Turkey's military, which has overthrown six previous governments in the
country's history, issued a statement warning on the eve of the
parliamentary vote against "furtive plans which aim to undo the modern
advances and ruin the Turkish republic's secular and democratic
structure."

But the government of Gul's Justice and Development Party is broadly
popular in Turkey, credited by many for boosting public services,
limiting corruption and helping to bring Turkey to what many economists
say is the greatest prosperity in its history. The prosperity is likely
to protect the government from any immediate moves against it by the
military.

Gul took the oath of office in parliament without his wife, Hayrunisa,
by his side. Her customary wearing of an Islamic head scarf has become
a flash point for secularists.

"Turkey is a secular democracy . . . these are basic values of our
republic and I will defend and strengthen these values," Gul pledged in
a speech to parliament after taking his oath. A secular opposition
party boycotted the event, and small numbers of protesters outside
parliament waved posters showing Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the general who
put modern Turkey on the secular path in the early 20th century.

Turkey's military intervened in April to block an attempt then to win
Gul's parliamentary election to the presidency. Generals posted a
statement on the military's Web site interpreted as a strong warning
against Gul's candidacy, leading the country's prime minister, Recep
Tayyip Erdogan of the Justice and Development Party, to call early
parliamentary elections last month to try to increase the party's
strength.

Turkish voters strongly backed the Justice and Development Party in the
July elections, increasing its power in parliament in what was widely
seen as a rebuke to the military for interfering.

The Justice and Development Party has stressed business and social
services far more than Islamic goals in its six years in power.

Its ascendance follows elections elsewhere in the region that have
increased the political strength of Islamic parties, including the
Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.

In Palestinian territories and especially in Egypt, however, the votes
for the Islamic parties were widely seen as protest votes against local
authoritarian systems. The Justice and Development Party's success with
voters is seen as an endorsement of the orderly way it has brought
inflation in check, boosted the economy and increased social services.

[Special correspondent Zehra Ayman contributed to this report from
Istanbul.]

© 2007 The Washington Post