Mr Ahmet Necdet Sezer, the reformist judge elected president of Turkey yesterday, will need all his judicial skills to achieve greater democracy while dealing with squabbling political leaders.
Turkey's parliament chose the pro-reform chairman of the Constitutional Court, Mr Ahmet Necdet Sezer (58), to be the republic's 10th president.
When the Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, nominated the little known head of the Constitutional Court as a consensus candidate, Mr Sezer said he was as surprised as anyone. Mr Sezer is loyal to both the state principle of secularism and the memory of national founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, views likely to endear him to the military. But he also advocates democratic reforms, a stance likely to charm Europe.
In his first comments after being elected, Mr Sezer made a plea for more democracy.
"At the basis of all of Turkey's problems is the practice of not abiding by the rules and the lack of institutionalisation," he told a news conference. "In society and in politics, democracy is not sufficiently developed. A tradition of democracy has not been established."
Mr Sezer also pledged to stand against the twin forces of political Islam and Kurdish nationalism which have plagued Turkey since its inception 76 years ago.
He showed that resolve in 1998 by banning the Islam-based Welfare Party for attempting to overthrow the secular order.
Mr Sezer has called for the 1982 constitution, drawn up under army rule, to be overhauled. "Turkey must make the necessary changes to its laws and constitution so as to conform to the universal standards in the field of human rights," Mr Sezer said this week. "Laws limiting the freedom of expression should be abolished."
Mr Sezer is acutely aware that such measures must be taken if Turkey is ever to realise its decades-old ambition of joining the EU.
The Turkish presidency has been transformed by its two most recent incumbents, two populist politicians, Mr Turgut Ozal and Mr Suleyman Demirel, from a largely ceremonial post to one in which the head of state involves himself in all matters.
Mr Sezer says the post should be shorn of much of its power.
"The authorities granted to the president are those granted in a semi-presidential system. I find them excessive," he said. "But as long as they are in force, I must abide by them."
Close aides say Turkey's new president is wary of being drawn into political feuding and is shy of media attention.
Mr Demirel kept up a hectic schedule of foreign and domestic visits. Mr Sezer, who had a heart bypass in February and has little foreign policy experience, might find that pace hard to maintain.
Mr Sezer is also known as a careful spender who values hard work above everything and abhors waste of public funds.