Word: secularistic
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...pitched the ruling conservative AK Party led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan against the staunchly secular military, which rejected the nomination of Gul, the foreign minister, for the largely ceremonial presidency. The military opposed Gul's initial candidacy on the grounds that it represented a violation of Turkey's founding secularist principles - the fact that Gul's wife, a conservative Muslim, wears a headscarf in public represented a symbol of the Turkish state intolerable to the generals. Gul's nomination was eventually blocked by a parliamentary maneuver by secularist opposition parties, and the AK Party responded by calling new elections...
...Erdogan's strategy appeared to have paid off. His party far outdistanced the main secularist opposition People's Republican Party (CHP), which trailed with 20% of the vote. It was a shattering defeat for the party, which had urged voters to defend the secular political system established in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk against what they claim is the political Islam of Erdogan and his party...
...election to nearly 47% Sunday, according to preliminary results. It marks the first time in 52 years that Turks have voted an incumbent party back into power with even more support than before. It is also a profound sign of Turks' disaffection with the traditional secularist elite...
...Erdogan called the early election in May to reaffirm his mandate after the country's secularist establishment - including its powerful generals - blocked him from appointing Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as President. Gul, whose wife wears an Islamic-style headscarf, was opposed by the secularists because his presidency would remove any checks on the AKP, whom, they fear, harbors a secret agenda to turn Turkey into an Iranian style theocracy. Members of the AKP dismiss those claims, saying they have moved away from early Islamist roots and pointing to a successful five-year track record in office...
...Speaking to crowds outside the AKP headquarters in Ankara, hoarse from the campaign trail, Erdogan called the result a victory for Turkey's democracy. He promised to continue with Turkey's E.U. membership drive, told secularist voters that he "understood them too" and, quoting Ataturk, said he would seek national unity...