euro|topics - Abdullah Gül elected Turkish president

Main focus of Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Abdullah Gül elected Turkish president

Abdullah Gül was elected on August 28 as Turkey's president by the Turkish parliament. His election came in the third round of a second attempt at electing a president. The conservative, Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) has thus secured its influence in parliament and the president's office, and won the power struggle with the country's Kemalist military. Will a more stable Turkey now draw closer to the EU?

Respekt - Czech Republic

Petr Kučera describes Turkey's new president and outgoing Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül as a "good Islamist" and an "Islamic democrat." "He's definitely not a radical. Although he is openly committed to the religious roots of the AKP party which he co-founded, he refutes the opposition's claims that his goal is to establish an Islamic regime in Turkey. In the five years since they came to power, Gül and his colleagues have made much greater efforts towards pro-European and democratic reform than any of the secular parties did in several dozen years. The prominent Turkish journalist Mehmet Ali Birand rightly criticised the radical secularists, who are more preoccupied with the headscarf worn by the new first lady than her husband's capabilities." (29/08/2007)

Népszabadság - Hungary

Gyula Krajczár comments on Güls victory: "The election of the eleventh president of the modern Republic of Turkey opens a new chapter in the country's history. Previous presidents of this emphatically secular state have always been avid supporters of the Republic's founder Kemal Atatürk. Although politicians or parties with a different concept of the relationship between the state and religion have held the executive several times in the past, the army and other elitist secular organisations have always protected the secular state - through more or less subtle means and four times even by staging coups. Their opponent's conquest of the presidential office creates an entirely new situation. Because the president is elected by parliament he has only limited powers, but he can block the passage of new laws and according to the constitution he is the supreme commander of the armed forces." (29/08/2007)

El País - Spain

"The anomaly in Turkey is military power, not the fact that a former Islamist has been elected president. This election reflects the social reality of a country that is, according to polls, not very preoccupied by the president's wife's veil", considers the Spanish daily. "The new situation in Turkey represents a big challenge for Europe. The EU cannot slam its door in the face of Turkey's desire to join it, which is also a desire for modernisation. ... The experience of the full exercise of power by moderate Islamists, who say they accept secular constitutional rules, is not only crucial for Turkey, but also for the whole of the Muslim world and for Europe." (29/08/2007)

La Libre Belgique - Belgium

Gérald Papy welcomes this election. "On Tuesday, Turkey pulled itself up and out of its existential crisis. Institutional rules were respected. The natural candidate for the presidency, who imposed himself all the more with the AKP victory in the legislative elections in July, was elected in the third round of the elections with a simple majority. He immediately promised to respect secularism. The army, in the end, after one last warning on Monday evening and ostensible grievance on Tuesday, is left to watch by the wayside. .. . It has to be said that since being in power, Tayyip Erdogan and Abdullah Gül have favoured the economic development of Turkey and relations with the European Union, thus proving that Islam can blend into democracy. In these times of religious radicalisation, the Turkish laboratory is not only precious; it is vital." (29/08/2007)

Le Temps - Switzerland

Frédéric Koller feels that "The AKP has won its bet. It is about to become a big centre-right party, respectful of institutions, a Muslim equivalent of Europe's Christian-democrat parties. Turkey can thus hope to become a model for the entire Muslim world. In Morocco, currently preparing for elections, a former Islamist party is already claiming the legacy of the AKP. It is the scenario -optimistic- that the West no longer dared believe in, stuck with the simplistic cultural notion that associates Islam with terror. The truth is of course more complex. And the success of Gül goes well beyond the secular/religious divide, carried as he is by an excellent economic conjuncture. It however remains to be seen whether we can brush aside the hypothesis that one day the AKP might fall back on Islamist values - as the secularists suspect- to cement its electorate in times of crisis." (29/08/2007)

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

Kai Strittmatter describes how Gül's opponents eventually ran out of arguments and have been left with only one flimsy complaint: Hayrünnisa Gül's headscarf. "A bearded man with a wife who wears a headscarf - and not even loosely in accordance with long-standing Turkish tradition but tightly bound under her chin so as to completely cover her hair and neck. The army hasn't missed a single opportunity to depict this as the worst possible scenario from its point of view. But what about the rest of the country? As far as it's concerned this is a step further towards normality. In a recent poll conducted by the liberal newspaper Milliyet, 70 percent said it made no difference whether the president's wife wore a headscarf or not. Almost as many say it doesn't matter that the president is religious. They still trust Gül to protect Turkey's secular constitution. Gül's opponents will watch the couple's every move, waiting for them to make the slightest mistake. However the past few years under the AKP government have illustrated how superficial their old dress code really is. All of a sudden it was the moustachioed devout who were the more open-minded and the purported secularists in their fine suits who were the diehard conservatives." (29/08/2007)

» To the complete press review of Wednesday, August 29, 2007

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