Pages

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Islamist Erdogan won't run in Turkey..but wants another Islamist in power


The political circus in Turkey continues.

Islamist prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,leader of the Islamist Justice and Development Party decided not to run for the presidency after wide spread protests in Turkey by pro-secular anti-Islamists, and a frank warning from the Army.

However, in a new bid to take over the country and move it further into the Islamist camp, Erdogan is pushing Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul — a leading member of Turkey's ruling Islamist government - as the Justice and Development's presidential candidate.

Gul, of course, is very familiar to Joshua's Army members as a major player in pushing for Turkey's alignment with Iran's Islamist bloc against the West.

Gul's candidacy has deeply divided parliament and upset the country's secular establishment, which is led by the military.

And the main opposition, pro-secular Republican People's Party, which has 152 seats, said it will boycott the first round of parliamentary voting Friday. They are talking about bringing matters to the Constitutional Court to cancel the election if the first round proceeded without two-thirds of the 550 lawmakers present, which means Turkey could be forced into early general elections.

Or, the army could step in.

If Gul is elected by parliament, he would basically act as a rubber stamp to steer the country further in the direction of Islamism under Erdogan's direction. The previous president, Sezer, rejected a record number of bills and appointments of officials who were Islamist supporters.

2 comments: