Turkey's foreign minister gives up on presidency bid

TURKEY: Turkey's foreign minister has abandoned his bid to become president after an opposition boycott yesterday ensured that…

TURKEY:Turkey's foreign minister has abandoned his bid to become president after an opposition boycott yesterday ensured that, for the second time, the vote in parliament fell short of the two-thirds necessary for a quorum.

The candidacy of Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist whose wife wears a headscarf, had sparked a political crisis, with the army threatening to intervene and secularists staging one of their biggest demonstrations in Istanbul eight days ago.

Turkey's constitutional court sided with the secularists, declaring a first presidential vote by the parliament, held on April 27th, void after fewer than 367 deputies attended.

Mr Gul, a last-minute compromise stand-in for his more combative prime minister Tayyip Erdogan, always wanted to be prime minister more than wanting the largely ceremonial presidency.

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The failure of his bid represents a victory for Turkey's secular establishment, which had claimed Mr Gul's self-styled Muslim democrat party planned to impose its conservative way of life on the country.

With general elections brought forward from November to July 22nd after the court decision, it is unlikely to end the polarisation of Turkish society. The main opposition party has already vowed to block government attempts to change the constitution to allow the president to be elected directly by the people rather than by MPs.

The government came to power in 2002 and led a rapid period of liberal reform. As political debate now focuses on the perceived menace to secularism, Turkey's ongoing EU accession process has been all but forgotten. - ( Guardian service)