- Title: TURKEY: Turkey's Abdullah Gul seeks support for presidential bid
- Date: 14th August 2007
- Summary: WIDE TAKSIM SQUARE WITH PIGEONS AND TRAMS PASSING
- Embargoed: 29th August 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Turkey
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA5FP7ILSC3D3QE7PF10E0Q8OQW
- Story Text: Turkey's presidential hopeful Abdullah Gul is meeting with opposition leaders to drum up support for his presidential bid, but he faces hostility from secularists wary of his Islamic past. The markets are not responding well either with the currency, lira, weakening after Gul's party chose him to be its frontrunner.
Turkey's ruling AK Party decided on Monday (August 13) to re-submit Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, an ex-Islamist, as its candidate for president - a move that is sure to anger the country's secular elite.
But on the streets of Istanbul on Tuesday (August 14), the announcement of Gul's candidacy was received with cautious optimism.
"There is a difference between now and earlier. His candidacy triggered political crisis earlier but i don't think there will be a crisis now," said Nusret Ozkul, a resident of Istanbul.
"He has been in power for a long period. I believe Turkey will support him if he hadn`t done some negative things in the past. On the other hand I don`t think it is good for Turkey to behave stubbornly towards each other," said Bahattin Pala.
But the markets were a bit more sceptical with the lira weakening on Tuesday by 2 percent.
Later on Tuesday, Gul will visit opposition leaders to drum up support for his bid to be elected head of state. He is expected to announce his candidacy formally later on Tuesday after his talks with the opposition leaders.
Secularists dislike Gul's Islamist background and the fact his wife wears the Muslim headscarf. They derailed an earlier AK Party bid in May to have parliament elect Gul, a move that sparked early parliamentary elections that the party won.
The centre-right, pro-business AK Party believes Gul, a gently spoken diplomat and architect of Turkey's bid to join the European Union, is the best man to succeed staunchly secularist President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, whose mandate has now expired.
The party also says its victory in July 22 parliamentary elections gives it the moral and political right to re-submit Gul and to show that elected politicians, not generals, run this largely Muslim but secular country of 74 million people. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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