Turkish parliament may declare pre-term election

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey's powerful military said on Friday it was watching the parliamentary election of a new president with concern, hours after an inconclusive first round split Turkish secularists and the Islamist-rooted government.



Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, the ruling AK Party's candidate, failed to win sufficient votes in the first round of voting after opposition parties boycotted the session.



"The Turkish armed forces are watching this (election) situation with concern," the General Staff said in an unusually blunt statement late on Friday that also reminded the politicians the military is the ultimate defender of secularism.



Turkey's secular elite, which includes army generals, top judges and the opposition parties, fear that Gul, a former Islamist, will try to erode Turkey's separation of politics and religion if elected.



The army ousted a government it viewed as too Islamist as recently as 1997. Gul served in that government. He says his views have changed and he is now a conservative democrat.



The AK Party's main rival, the CHP, has asked the Constitutional Court to annul the vote on a technicality, raising the risk of protracted legal wrangling in the strategically important European Union candidate country.



If the court backs the CHP, a general election must be called within 90 days.



Nobody predicts an army coup in today's Turkey, where the economy is growing strongly and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government is popular, but the generals' warning is a timely reminder of the growing political tensions.



As an example of what it called increased "reactionary," or Islamist, activity, the army statement cited the recent murder of three Christians at a Bible publishing house in eastern Turkey. Turkish media have suggested the arrested suspects may be militant Islamists.



Gul, a gently-spoken diplomat, is respected abroad as the architect of Turkey's EU bid but the secularists point to his Islamist past and the fact his wife wears the Muslim headscarf.



Two weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Ankara in defense of secularism and against Erdogan himself running for the presidency. Another rally is planned in Istanbul, Turkey's business and cultural center, on Sunday.



Earlier on Friday, opposition parties accused the government of riding rough-shod over parliament, where it has a big majority. The Constitutional Court said it would consider the CHP appeal on Monday.



Parliament is due to hold a second round of voting next Wednesday, though Gul is not expected to win the presidency until a third round set for May 9, when he only has to secure a simple majority in the 550-seat assembly.



On Friday, Gul won 357 votes. He had needed 367 to win.



The CHP asked the Constitutional Court to rule Friday's vote invalid because there were fewer than two thirds, or 367 deputies, in the chamber at the time of the vote. The AK Party says only 184 deputies need be present for a vote to be valid.



If elections are called, incumbent Ahmet Necdet Sezer would stay as president until a new parliament could elect his successor.



The AK Party is expected to win the next general election, which must anyway be held by November, and is ahead of its rivals in opinion polls. It rejects the Islamist label.



The CHP appears to be hoping for a strong surge of support from moderate pro-secular voters worried by the AK Party's impending capture of the presidency, which would complete its domination of all the key state institutions.



Turkey's financial markets traded lower on Friday, fearful legal battles over the election could scare investors.



In Turkey, the government holds most power but the president can veto laws, block appointments of officials and appoint judges. The president is also the army's commander-in-chief.



As successor to modern Turkey's revered founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the president also carries great moral weight. If elected, Gul would be the first ex-Islamist to hold the post, Reuters reports.