|
Turks Protest for Secular Preservation |
 |
 |
 |
|
Written by AP
|
|
Sunday, 06 May 2007 06:21 |
|
More than 10,000 Turks gathered in two western cities Saturday to protest the Islamic-rooted government, calling for Turkey's secular system to be preserved.
Thousands of Turks gathered in two western cities to protest the Islamic-rooted government, calling for Turkey's secular system to be preserved. The protests in Canakkale and Manisa, two cities near Turkey's Aegean coast, follow massive pro-secular demonstrations in Ankara and Istanbul that were attended by more than a million people.
The protesters Saturday carried Turkish flags and posters of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's founder who insisted on a separation of religion and state in this 99 percent Muslim country.
Police in Manisa estimated that more than 10,000 people were present at the demonstration. Police reinforcements were sent to Manisa from the large port city of Izmir, where a similar demonstration is scheduled for May 13.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has come under heavy pressure in the run-up to presidential elections, with secularists fearing that he would expand his party's control by appointing a close ally, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, to the post.
But the opposition boycotted the vote in Parliament, and the Constitutional Court then canceled the first round of voting, saying a necessary quorum of legislators was not present.
The decision, along with increasing pressure from the public and the military, led Erdogan to call for snap early parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for July 22. A measure is also being debated in Parliament to allow the president to be elected directly by the people, rather than by Parliament, which is currently dominated by members of Erdogan's party.
Gul said in an interview with the Financial Times on Friday that he would be his party's candidate if the vote went to the people, and said he believed he had the support of 70 percent of the Turkish public. He also said that the vote would be repeated in Parliament on Sunday, when he hoped some legislators would change their minds and support him. Analysts have said that was unlikely.
Erdogan spent time in jail in 1999 for challenging Turkey's secular system, and many of his party's members, including Gul, are pious Muslims who made their careers in the country's Islamist political movement.
Turkey's secularism is enshrined in the constitution and fiercely guarded by the judiciary and by the powerful military, which has threatened to intervene in the presidential elections to ensure secularism is enforced. |