Word: mehmet
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...presidency heralds the start of a new era for Turkey, it's far from clear what that new era is going to hold. "Is this the beginning of a new period of compromise, or the start of secularist-Islamist strife?" wrote columnist Mehmet Ali Birand. A former foreign minister, Gul is widely known as a coalition builder who played a key role in Turkey's European Union membership bid, but his background in political Islam makes him unpalatable to secularists...
...Although Gul is backed by the majority of his party, other AKP nominees may step forward in coming days - including two men who may be less offensive to the military: One is a former Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul; another is a former Minister for Religious Affairs, Mehmet Ali Aydin. Both are considered moderates and both, notably, are married to women who leave their hair uncovered. The largest opposition party, the Nationalist Action Party, or MHP, may also field a candidate...
...particularly religious," said Mehmet Yilmaz, a store owner in an up-market Istanbul district that backs the secular CHP. "But my business is doing well under this government. The Turkish lira is stable. That's what counts for me. Honestly, I don't think there's any chance we are going to turn into Iran." Sociologist Nilufer Gole says the AKP has become Turkey's new "centrist, democratic" political alternative...
...experienced impressive gdp growth, but has rid itself of the hyperinflation that plagued it for most of the 1990s. For real estate agent Abdullah Cam, 23, who says his family firm has tripled revenues in the past five years, the AKP has been "great for business." Down the road, Mehmet Goktas, 41, agrees. Sales at the supermarket he owns have more than doubled in the same period. "We've moved from an inflation-based economy to a normal one," he says. Both Cam and Goktas consider themselves "very religious" and both come from conservative families who were drawn...
...backing a diplomatic force involving Ankara, Washington and Baghdad. That initiative has not, however, produced tangible results, and Turkey has accused the Iraqi Kurdish administration of giving refuge to thousands of PKK guerrillas. "Going into north Iraq would bring Turkey into a head-on disagreement with the U.S.," says Mehmet Altan, a newspaper columnist and political analyst. "That could jeopardize Turkey's stability and position in the region...