AS forecast here last week, Turkey's foreign minister Abdullah Gull was yesterday elected President by the country's parliament by a large majority. On the eve of the election the Army's most senior officer, General Yasar Buyukanit, had issued a statement warning the country of centres of evil trying to undermine the Turkish state's constitutional secularism; the warning was widely understood to refer to Mr Gull who has now become the first Muslim president since Turkey was created in 1923.
Turkey now enters a period during which statesmanship of the highest order will be needed to avoid internal disruption. All principal offices of state, including that of head of the armed forces, are now held by men with Islamic roots. As President Mr Gull will have power to veto government legislation and the question that worries secularists is this: if the government, of which until yesterday Mr Gull was a member, were to pass legislation of an Islamic character would President Gull use his power to veto it order to uphold separation of state and religion? And if he did not, what would the army do? In the past it has intervened on four occasions to remove or restrain a government it did not like. Events in Turkey are of great concern to the European Union which Turkey wants to join and has made considerable progress in adjusting its institutions to EU norms. But there is opposition from France and other countries which believe Turkey cannot really be considered European.
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