ANKARA, Turkey (ABP) — In a blow to an elite secularist caste that has ruled the nation for more than 80 years, the Turkish Parliament elected a devout Muslim as president Aug. 28.
Former foreign minister Abdullah Gul received 339 votes — far more than the simple majority required in the 550-seat legislature. Two other candidates combined for a total of 83 votes, while members of Turkey's main secular party boycotted the balloting.
The 56-year-old's election ends a four-month battle over control of the nation between Gul's ascendant Justice and Development Party — known by its Turkish initials as AKP — and the secularists.
In April, secularists mounted massive protests in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and AKP first attempted to nominate Gul for the presidency. Many secular Turks worried that Gul and other moderate Muslims were gaining too much power.
Turkey's population is 99 percent Muslim, according to most estimates. However, unlike most other majority-Muslim nations, the government has been staunchly secularist since the Turkish Republic's founding in 1923. Many Turks have criticized Gul and Erdogan, for instance, because their wives wear traditional Islamic headscarves. Under current law, such scarves are banned in Turkish government buildings.
Erdogan called for new elections following massive protests in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities where the secularists are concentrated and where they have traditionally dominated Turkish politics. In recent years, however, the nation's economic boom has resulted in a newly powerful middle class made up of practicing Turkish Muslims.
AKP won a large majority in the July elections with many supporters citing the party's economic policies rather than its leaders' religious or social conservatism.
Erdogan's government is credited with continuing the economic reforms that have boosted the nation's wealth. It is also credited with pushing for Turkey's admission into the European Union.
In an inaugural speech, Gul attempted to allay fears over his ability to govern a secular republic.
“Secularism, one of the basic principles of our republic, is a rule of social peace,” he said, according to the New York Times.
The turmoil over Gul also took place against the backdrop of the brutal murders of three Christians in a small city in eastern Turkey. AKP leaders have condemned the murders, which took place April 18 in the city of Malatya.
According to Compass Direct, a news service that tracks persecution of Christians, two victims — Necati Aydin, 36, and Ugur Yuksel, 32, were Turks who converted from Islam to Christianity. The third man, Tillman Geske, 46, was a German citizen. Local authorities have described the accused murderers as militant Islamists.
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Turkish voters give mandate to moderate Islamist party (7/26/07)