Turkey, a million in the streets in Istanbul to reaffirm the secular state

ANKARA – Over a million Turks took to the streets in Istanbul to support the principle of state secularism and to demonstrate against the candidacy of Abdullah Gul . “Neither Sharia, nor coup, we want democracy”. “We don’t want any of the AKP as president”. These are the slogans shouted by protesters in Clagayan Square in Istanbul. Arriving from all over the country with Turkish flags of all sizes, they met to protest against the possibility of electing the current Foreign Minister Gul, candidate of the pro-Islamist party AKP in the government, to reaffirm the secularism of the state against the background of the conflict that broke out between the government and the armed forces.

The demonstration is organized by about 400 associations that refer to the father of the homeland Kemal Ataturk, who believe that the election of a AKP candidate “would be a threat to the secularism of Turkey” and would represent “a drift towards the dominion of one party “, given that the AKP also controls the government and an overwhelming majority in Parliament. The promoters expect to “exceed the one and a half million people” that on April 14th took to the streets in Ankara against the possibility of electing an AKP member as president.

The political crisis began when Gul, the only presidential candidate supported by the pro-Islamic party of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, failed to obtain a qualified majority in Parliament for direct election.

Yesterday, the military entered the polemic who, with an unprecedented intervention, had accused the government of “anti-secular activities” and reaffirmed their constitutional role as “guardians of secularism”, which had caused concern to the EU. Positions that have not impressed Gul at all: The Foreign Minister has in fact made it known that he does not intend to withdraw his candidacy.

April 29, 2007