Word: erdogan
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...Turkey's powerful military has frequently indicated its readiness to launch a cross-border operation, but Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has resisted - until now. Newly under pressure from the secularist army over his party's Islamic roots, Erdogan's thinking about military action in Iraq has clearly changed, telling the ATV Turkish television network that parliament would now approve a military strike if the army sought it. "It is out of the question for us to disagree on this issue with our... soldiers," he said. He also indicated he would not seek the U.S.'s approval, which has opposed...
...also been careful not to push an Islamic agenda too aggressively. Erdogan, for example, ran for office in 2002 on promises to lift a 1981 secularist ban on head scarves in universities and other public buildings, but has so far refrained from doing so. Still, the party has also made its share of missteps. Last year Erdogan nominated a specialist in Islamic banking with no expert knowledge of interest rates to lead the country's central bank (the decision was vetoed). The party also introduced (and subsequently dropped) a law banning adultery. Turkey's newspapers are filled with stories...
...widespread such practices are is hard to measure. But secularist Turks have been quick to raise the alarm. An overwhelming majority distrusted Erdogan anyway, despite his repeated insistence that he supports a secular, democratic state. As evidence against him, these skeptics cited comments he made before he was elected that democracy is "like a streetcar-you ride it to the end and then you get off." The party has often been judged less for its performance than for what it represents. Secularists feel this is "an existential issue," explains Altinay, "and therefore that any route to stopping them is acceptable...
...incumbent President, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, is a staunch secularist who was only too willing to wield his veto power to quash legislation and appointments he deemed too Islamist. As the ruling party, the AKP had a constitutional right to appoint one of its own to replace Sezer, and Erdogan came close to nominating himself for the job. In the end, he bowed out in the face of vigorous opposition from the military and the public, and picked Gul as a compromise candidate...
...Widely considered the more moderate of the two politicians, Gul speaks English, unlike Erdogan, and is even rumored to have a sense of humor. He is also well-known to Turkey's allies in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere, and played a key role in presenting Turkey's case for membership to the E.U. Still, like most top AKP officials, Gul got his start in parties that were banned in the 1990s for flirting with political Islam. And secularists could not abide the idea that, as Turkey's First Lady, Gul's wife Hayrunnisa would be wearing the traditional Muslim...