Word: gul
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Washington seems to be still fully behind Musharraf. "Yes, on paper [his] power is diminished," says a State Department official. "But the hope is that Musharraf will continue to influence policy in the war on terror as President." Retired Lieut. General Hamid Gul, former director of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, calls the Americans "naive" for thinking that Musharraf will have any power if he steps down as military chief, or that Bhutto as Prime Minister will be able to control the army. "The Pakistani army is a one-man show. Whoever is chief gets to call the shots...
Armed forces chief General Yasar Buyukanit notably did not attend Gul's swearing-in ceremony on August 28. A day later Buyukanit pointedly failed to acknowledge Gul at a military graduation ceremony. Buyukanit warned the press not to read too much into these slights. But the Turks know better. There have been four military coups since...
Iraq is not the only country in the region where there's rumors of a coup in the works. Ever since Prime Minister Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) swept Turkish parliamentary elections on July 22, and then elected AKP member Abdallah Gul President, the Turkish generals have been casting around for an excuse to take power. They mutter about Ergdogan being a fundamentalist and wobbly on security...
...there are good reasons to think that this time it is, in fact, different. Gul, 56, is a moderate, and Turkey has always been a radically different place from its neighbors to the east. Today's ruling AK Party (AKP) is a democratic movement with roots in the Anatolian heartland, where economic success is valued as highly as piety. Its leaders, Gul among them, have renounced Islamism, or the belief that Islam has a role in guiding affairs of state. Gul himself holds a Ph.D. in economics and spearheaded Turkey's efforts to reform its economy and legal system...
...model of democracy and capitalism in the Muslim world. That role as an exemplar is not one that many Turks particularly want, arguing that Turkey's history, geography and secularist traditions - the very things that have helped bind it tightly to the West - are unique among Muslim nations. Regardless, Gul's election doesn't threaten those achievements; it confirms them. Turkey's economy is closely linked to the world. Now there are grounds for thinking that its political system, too, is becoming more deeply rooted in modern, democratic ideals...