Turkey's Gul Pulls Out of Race As Country Debates Secularist Tradition

In Turkey this morning, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul withdrew his candidacy for the presidency as Parliament once again failed to muster the quorum necessary to proceed with a vote. Members of Parliament from Turkey's secularist party again boycotted the session. (AP). These developments occurred as tens of thousands of Turks demonstrated in Manisa in support of Turkey's secularist tradition and against the perceived increase of Islamic influence that would follow from Gul's election. (New York Times.) Gul's AK Party has Islamic roots, but claims that it is modern and has moved beyond its Islamic roots. (CNN).

Meanwhile this morning two papers in Britain have interesting analyses of the tensions in Turkey. The Guardian says:

The conflict has been as much about political power and class as it has been about Islam. The simple version paints out inconvenient facts: Erdogan's avowed support for secularism, an AKP whose leadership rejects the label of Islamist, and a programme dedicated to gaining EU membership and attracting foreign investment.

But underpinning this confrontation is something more mundane. It is the fear of the wealthy, highly educated and westernised elite that has traditionally run Turkey - and who are secular - of being pushed aside by a newly-powerful group made up of the urban poor and the lower-middle classes, a group that is conservative and religiously observant.

Today's London Times reports that the complex dispute has become symbolized by controversy over whether Turkish women should wear the the Islamic headscarf. Gul's wife does.

Impacting all of this is a vote in Parliament last Thursday giving initial support to an AKP proposal for direct popular election of the President, instead of the President being elected by Parliament. (Sunday's Zaman). (See prior related posting.)

UPDATE: Monday's Turkish Daily News also has an analysis of the situation, saying that it is more a political battle than a religious one. And a Newsweek columnist reports on his interview with Abdullah Gul who denies that the AKP has an Islamist agenda.