Report: Turkey FM withdraws candidacy (Gul)

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's foreign minister withdrew his candidacy for presidential elections after Parliament failed to reach a quorum Sunday needed to elect a new president, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Parliament was short of the 367 legislators needed to proceed with the vote after holding two separate roll-calls, Speaker Bulent Arinc said.

The vote was being repeated after Turkey's Constitutional Court, siding with the secular opposition, annulled a first-round of voting last week saying not enough legislators were present.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a close ally of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was the sole candidate in the voting.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070506/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_presidency

[Orrin_73]

1. That's sad, he would have been a good president

I support you mr Gul.

[potone]

2. Really?

I am curious as to why you think that he would have been a good President of Turkey.

[Orrin_73]

3. As a Turk I follow the news closely

AKP government compared to its corrupt predessors was a gift from heaven. They brought the inflation down from 75% to less then 10%. Turkey was sufferening from high inflation for more then 3 decades. The GDP of Turkey more then doubled in the past 5 years, many economic and political reforms were introduced. The foreign investments in Turkey increased more then ten fold. They were/are succesful,. The relations of Turkey and its neighbours is very good especially with greece. Gul's presidency is a thorn in the eye of some people who do not want to see a woman with a veil as the wife of a president.

[demoleft]

4. Is it all about money?

you show GDP figures. that's ok. even russia grows. as to inner democracy, respect for journalists, progressive values - that's quite another thing. what you call "some people" was thousands: i accept you don't agree with them, but you should not call them "some"!!
You refer to Turkey's past. What about Gul's past?

[Orrin_73]

6. Please explain what Gul did in the past that was

damaging to his career? There is nothing that Gul should be ashamed of, Gul was member of a party that was closed down in 1997 because some members of the political and military elite did not like them. Most people in Turkey are very supportive of Gul. The protesters belong to a minority that see its power diminishing under a Gul presidency. Abdullah Gul is the man of the common people, he is an anatolian. Son of a poor man who made it and not the son of a arrogant Istanbul snob who thinks he owns Turkey.

[demoleft]

9. A million people plus the army is not "some"

I don't discuss his ability and competence. The party he was in was closed for political reasons, not because of some "elite"'s envy.
Now I only say: a million people with flags and the army on the guard to defend secular values against what they see as a threat: does it deserve attention and reflection or not?

[Orrin_73]

11. AKP has still the large support in Turkey

"those" people did not protest, they to could fill entire streets. What about them and their wishes. You sound like comparing AKP to al qaeda! There is absolutely no comparison. AKP is a legitimate party, when the wife of the presidential contender wears a veil does not make him a fundamentalist. Those people on the streets were largely mobilised by the "elite" and their media. There is nothing that AKP or Gul did that hurt Turkey or secularism.

There are even reports that schoolchildren were taken from classes to make them participate in those protests by orders of some "secularists".

[demoleft]

13. please leave al qaeda and the veils apart: never mentioned!

i don't believe in manipulations of millions of people, associations and groups. you do, ok, i'm easy.
people rallying on the streets are as much democracy as the parliament majority. there was no harming intentions as far as i saw it.
but please: leave al qaeda and the veils apart. no one mentioned them here.

[Orrin_73]

14. They are mentioned in Turkey by those people

[athena]

24. Money is the main reason for the AKP's popularity.

Turkey's economy is not like Russia's; the AKP really has improved the living standards of most Turks, while improving human rights and getting Turkey closer to joining the EU. Many Turks, including staunchly secular ones, support the AKP, because the opposition party is corrupt and clueless. While the AKP is not great, it is a lot better than the opposition in many ways. My personal opinion is that it's inappropriate for the wife and daughters of Turkey's prime minister to wear a headscarf, and I think one shouldn't dismiss the recent protests as representing a small minority; but I agree with Orrin that Turkey's secularists tend to be annoyingly elitist.

It's a complicated situation; you can't reduce it to a black-and-white picture of islamism vs. secularism.

[Tempest]

26. So according to you

A family is not to adhere to their religious beliefs just because someone in the family holds a political office?

So Jewish government official families can't celebrate Yom Kippur?

And Christian goverment official families can't celebrate Ash Wednesday?

That's a slippery slope you're going down.

[athena]

27. No.

We are not talking about celebrating a religious holiday; we're talking about oppressing women. Large numbers of Turks don't feel that a woman has to cover her head to be a good Muslim. Millions of women in Turkey choose not to cover their heads (my grandmother is Turkish, and she has never covered her head, despite the fact that she considers herself a devout Muslim), and they don't feel that the wife of the prime minister represents them. They think that the headscarf is not an expression of religion but a symbol of support for sharia. How many Americans would feel happy if their First Lady wore a burqa, or if their president promoted female genital mutilation in the name of freedom of religious expression?

The Turks elected Erdogan as their prime minister. I've said that I think it's inappropriate for his wife to cover his head. I, personally, would not have voted for him. How is this a slippery slope? What is a slippery slope is that allowing headscarves in Turkish schools now may be a first step toward requiring them in the near future. Do you really think that the fundamentalists who are crying out for allowing headscarves in schools would be as adamant about defending students' right not to wear a headscarf?

For nearly a century now, Turkey has been interpreting Islam in a progressive way. Why are non-Turks now defending a small minority that wants to go back to a strict, medieval interpretation?

[Renew Deal]

5. Does this officially mean Turkey will go to the Islamists?

And does that kill any chance of joining the EU?

[Orrin_73]

7. Eu or no Eu does not mather

The Turkish people should decide who should become president, whether it is Islamist, socialist, communist or capitalist. Besides Gul is a moderate with a phd from a British university.
There are two kind of people in Turkey anatolians (asia minor) and those from Istanbul and Ankara (elite). If we believe in democracy we should accept the wishes of the majority, those protesting in the streets were not the majority of Turks, AKP party still enjoys stellar ratings.

[Renew Deal]

8. That sounds like a non-answer.

[ohio2007]

10. The answer is the military remains in power nt

[JoFerret]

22. The miliatry is the force for secularism

.

[ohio2007]

28. the military is the source of power in Turkey

[Orrin_73]

12. please explain why?

governments change by elections and not by brute force.

[athena]

20. Turkey is not going to go to the Islamists

any more than the U.S. will go to the evangelicals. Turkey has been a secular democracy for over eighty years; as the recent protests have indicated, the Turks are not going to let any party Islamicize the government -- it's not even clear that that's what the AKP wants to do.

The reason the AKP enjoys as much support among the public as it does is that while the AKP has been improving the economy and human rights, the opposition party has been suffering from corruption, bad leadership, and general cluelessness. The AKP's leader has been prime minister for the last four years, and Turkey has remained secular and moved closer to joining the EU. The president has significantly less power than the prime minister. The secularists are uneasy about having both levels controlled by people of the same party, but it's not like anything big is about to happen. If the military doesn't intervene, the situation will likely resolve itself.

[JoFerret]

21. France may settle that one.

.

[rodeodance]

15. Turkey's Islamic-rooted party dealt blow

Source: a p



Turkey's Islamic-rooted party dealt blow

By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer 6 minutes ago

ANKARA, Turkey - The Islamic-rooted government suffered another setback Sunday when parliament failed again to reach a quorum to elect its presidential candidate in an ongoing rift between the ruling party and the secular establishment.


Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a close ally of the prime minister, withdrew from the presidential race Sunday — a sign that the government was giving up efforts to push Gul's candidacy through Parliament in defiance of strong secularist opposition.

"There is no point in holding a new round of election," Gul said after the parliamentary session Sunday. "Parliament is deadlocked. The correct thing now is for the people to elect" the new president.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, already looking to elections set for July 22, is amending the constitution to open the way for the president to be elected by popular vote, instead of parliament.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/turkey_presidency;_ylt=AqfIGQZkot9ICSF6VPOfJWPMWM0F

[krispos42]

16. So, they're holding secularism rallies in Muslim Turkey...

And here in the secular USA, we're holding National Days of Prayer.

<sigh>

[athena]

17. News Flash!

Turkey is a secular country. Its laws are much stricter in separating religion and goverment than those of the U.S.. For example, it's illegal to print something like "In God we trust" on the money or to put up the equivalent of the ten commanments in a government building. Turkey's AKP is no more religious than the Republican Party of the USA. Comparing "Muslim Turkey" to "the secular USA" is completely misleading. You should either say "Muslim Turkey" and "Christian USA" or "secular Turkey" and "secular USA".

[krispos42]

18. Yes, I know. I was drawing a contrast between Turkey...

and most of the rest of the Muslim world, where the governments are theologically-based. Most of the Christian world has secular government. The Americas, Europe, Russia, etc. You would think that Italy, home of the Catholic Church for well over a millenia, would have the largest Christian influence in it's government.

But no. It's us, five or six thouand miles from the birthplace of Christianity and with a mucking great big ocean between us, that's trying to become a theocracy. :eyes:

I didn't know that they had stricter laws than we did, though I knew that that "Attaturk" (sp?) guy was pretty hot on Western civilization. Thank for the info.

[athena]

19. OK.

Based on the discussions I've seen on the internet about the protests, many people are unaware that Turkey is secular. It's hard to blame them, since the news outlets routinely refer to Turkey as an "Islamic" country and have the reporter stand in front of a Turkish mosque whenever there is any news from Turkey.

I don't want to imply that Turkish secularism is perfect, since many Turks are displeased with the extent to which religion still manages to creep into government and politics. But the situation is very different from what most people imagine.

[JoFerret]

23. Exellent observation

.

[Tempest]

25. Fear mongering not limited to the U.S.

It is the fear mongers who are causing the political crisis in Turkey.

Gul as Foreign Minister has been pro-EU and has never used his office to further the Islamists. He is a strong supporter of secularism in Turkey.

It is the fear mongers who are saying he'll move the country to Islamic rule with no basis or facts to back them up.

If the constitution is changed to make the president an elected position, Gul will win.

[athena]

29. I agree partly.

As I explained above, I don't like headscarves; but I also don't like the tactics of the opposition party, or the elitism of the secularists. I have to admit, though, that I haven't been following Turkish politics very closely; I hope you are right about Gul being a strong supporter of secularism. Indeed, I've heard good things about him from several of my secularist Turkish friends.