WITH ERDOGAN BLESSING, ABDOLLAH GUL NAMED NEW TURKISH PREMIER
By an IPS Correspondent
ANKARA 16 Nov. (IPS) Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Cezer named Saturday the
52 years old Abdollah Gul, a deputy of the Islam-based Justice and Development
Party AKP that won the last Parliamentary elections, as the country’s new
Prime Minister, who immediately announced Turkish ambitions to join the European
Community, keeping close ties with the United States and make sweeping plans for
economic and social reform.
"It's time to start work. From this hour onward it's time to mobilise and work night and day to solve the problems of our people", the British educated Gul said after the President invited him to form a government.
Cezer named Gul, who is an economist and experienced in government affairs, after a 20 minutes meeting with Erdogan on Friday. The other choice was Vecdi Gonul, a friend of the President and an administrator who was undersecretary at the Interior Ministry before entering politics.
"The fact that the prime minister was named so quickly by the President,
who has 45 days to present the Head of the government, is more surprising than
the nomination of Gul, which was expected. It shows that the country has no time
to waste in these critical weeks time when the economy is worsening and Ankara
is pushing hard to win a place at the European Union", explained Mr.
Mohammad Moshtaq, an Iranian journalist in Istanbul.
A former "right hand" man of Necmettin Erbakan, the leader of the banned Refah (Prosperity) and then Virtue (Fazilat) parties, which gave way to the present AKP, Mr. Gul, who is also a close ally of Mr. Teyyep Recep Erdogan, the leader of the AKP, is a well-known political personality with no radical views", Mr. Moshtaq told the Persian service of the BBC, adding that he has also the backing of the Turkish and international financial markets.
However, analysts say that the premiership of Mr. Gul depend of the decision of the Turkish Judiciary that has banned Mr. Erdogan from political activities from the time he was a -- quite popular -- Mayor of Istanbul, charging him with making "seditious speeches creating religious hating".
"Gul has proven himself in his sound friendship with Erdogan. He is the dependable man who would hand over the prime ministry to Erdogan when the time comes," commentator Guneri Civaoglu wrote in "Milliyet" newspaper.
Erdogan might be able to enter parliament next year in a by-election if a court accepts his appeal in January for the lifting of his political ban. He would then be expected to take over the prime minister's office from Gul.
"Even if Erdogan remains banned, though for not long time, he would be the virtual leader of the Government", Mr. Moshtaq observed.
Erdogan made his leading role abundantly clear by announcing a program of economic and social reform at a news conference held as Gul visited the Presidential palace.
"We are building a new world and this new world will bring the East and West together in Turkey", he declared.
He vowed rapid rights reforms including "immediate" new penalties to deter torture, long an obstacle to EU ambitions.
Analysts noted that both Erdogan and Gul are supported by the United States, which may soon look to them for use of air bases in any attack on neighbouring Iraq.
Some proposals hit at the core of Turkish life. He unveiled plans to reform the education system, a sensitive area where Turkey's secular establishment will be watching closely for any moves that could water down the country's secular principles.
"The new government would be watched closely by the Turkish military establishment which, as the guardian of Ataturk, the founder of the new, secularist Turkey, would not tolerate any departure from Kemalist principles", commented Mr. Reza Shoja’i, an Istanbul-based Iranian lawyer.
The new government's energetic action on the EU, including a six-city tour of the Union next week by Erdogan, contrasts with the often painfully antagonistic approach of the outgoing government. But there may still be strong resistance to giving Turkey a talks date until reforms have been clearly implemented.
Mr. Valery Giscard d’Estaing, a former French president who is now in charge of drawing the expanded EU Constitution, rejected the Turkish inclusion in the EU, observing that not only Turkey was not a European country, but even its capital, Ankara, was not situated in Europe.
His remarks, made recently in an interview with the leading French daily "Le Monde", infuriated the Turks, but most observers said what he said was the thinking of the majority of the Europeans.
Immediately after announcing the plans, Mr. Erdogan flew to the Turkish Cypriot north of Cyprus for meetings on a U.N. plan to reunite the divided island ahead of the EU summit in Copenhagen.
Erdogan welcomed the U.N. plan as a basis for more talks but said efforts to form a government in Ankara and the illness of Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash made the timetable tight. ENDS TURKEY GUL 161102