Word: secularists
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There are no easy answers. For the time being, the U.S. is pinning its hopes on Abbas, a moderate secularist who has been the titular leader of the Palestinians since the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004. Abbas has dismissed the Hamas-led government elected in January 2006 and appointed a new Cabinet of technocrats. To avoid a repeat of Fatah's defeat in Gaza, the U.S. moved swiftly to bolster Abbas in the West Bank by lifting an embargo on aid funds for the Palestinians. The new strategy--shared by the Israelis, the Europeans and the Bush Administration...
...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...
...Always a key behind-the-scenes force in domestic politics, Turkey's military has gotten more involved in governmental affairs recently. Last month it warned of possible intervention if Erdogan posted foreign minister Abdullah Gul, a devout Muslim, as Turkey's next president, citing doubts over his secularist credentials. The ensuing crisis forced the government to back down and call early elections, now scheduled for July...
...President possesses little legislative or executive power, other than wielding a veto. But the office carries huge symbolic importance, especially for the Turkish military, since one of the President's titles-albeit a ceremonial one-is commander-in-chief. The 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...
...Much of this mess could have been averted. The AKP could have nominated someone else for President, such as the innocuous Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul, whom secularists view with less trepidation than Gul. The military could have stayed out of politics. And the secularist opposition could have refrained from trying to short-circuit the democratic process with the help of a dubious, last-minute legal gambit...