Word: secularists
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...This isn't a matter of dress sense. Gul's nomination (and his wife's attire) has laid bare Turkey's deep divisions over the separation of religion and government. The protest was part of a much broader revolt by Turkey's self-described "secularists" against a popularly elected Islamic-leaning government that has held power-with considerable success-since November 2002. An ad hoc coalition of opposition parties, the military and parts of the judiciary, often referred to in Turkey as the "secular establishment," has in recent days derailed the presidential selection process in a standoff that underscores...
...when Turkey's Constitutional Court annulled the first round of elections in Parliament that would have made Gul President. Handpicked by his longtime ally Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Gul was ahead in the ballot, but the court, in a ruling that appeared to betray its secularist bias, upheld claims by Turkey's main secularist political party that the balloting was unconstitutional because a quorum wasn't present-no matter that the opposition engineered that shortfall by boycotting the vote, or that at least one President had previously been elected with a smaller quorum. Faced with this deadlock, Erdogan announced...
...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...
...court found that the AKP did not have a quorum in parliament when it attempted to elect Gul to the presidency last week. The judges did not comment on the fact that the secularist opposition party that lodged the petition had, in fact, engineered that shortfall by boycotting the first round. Nor did judges take note that on at least one previous occasion, in the 1980s, a President was elected without the same quorum the court deemed necessary in this instance. (At that time, no one challenged the result.) Still, the judgment has been accepted, and the AKP has called...