Turkijë: opnieuw risico op politieke onrust door presidentiële kandidaat (en)
Turkey may soon experience more political turbulence, as the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development party [AK Party] has renominated Abdullah Gul as presidential candidate.
A similar move in April resulted in hundreds of thousands of Turks taking to the streets and triggered a serious political crisis with the army threatening to step in to defend the country's secular values.
"[Mr] Gul is a statesman who has great experience. I believe he would be successful", Muran Mercan from the AK Party said after a party meeting on Monday (13 August), AP reports.
But opposition leaders immediately responded by saying that Mr Gul's candidacy "was not expected to contribute to peace and stability in the country".
"It is not appropriate to have a president who has problems with the founding philosophy of the Turkish Republic", Deniz Baykal, the head of the pro-secular Republican People's Party, was cited as saying by AP.
Abdullah Gul - a 56-year old politician who has steered Turkey's European Union accession talks since becoming foreign minister in 2003 - is seen by some as too loyal to his religious beliefs.
His opponents point out that Mr Gul's wife and daughter wear Muslim headscarves - something prohibited in Turkey's state and public institutions.
Opposition leaders had previously urged the country's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to nominate a less controversial figure for the top position, but Mr Erdogan bowed to pressure from his own party where Mr Gul enjoys great popularity.
However, the AK Party has only 341 seats in the assembly, far from the 367 votes, or two-thirds majority, needed for a presidential candidate to be elected in the first and second round of voting.
In the third and fourth round only an absolute majority is required.
The post as Turkish president, elected by parliament for a seven-year term, is to a large extent ceremonial.
But is considered one of the main pillars of secular Turkey founded in 1923 by the modernizer Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. In addition, he has the power to block government legislative initiatives.
The current president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer - a former head of the constitutional court - is seen as a staunch secularist and has often vetoed legislation by the government that he considered a threat to the secular ideals of the republic.
If Mr Gul is elected president, the AK party will control the presidential post, the government as well as the parliament.
He is scheduled to meet opposition leaders to seek their support for his presidential bid later today. The first round of voting is due 20 August.
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