A devout Muslim gets presidency
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a devout Muslim, won Turkey’s presidency after months of confrontation with the secular establishment. He promised to be impartial and praised the idea that Islam and the state should be separate.
Top generals did not attend the swearing-in of their new president and commander in chief. Local news media interpreted their absence as a protest against Gul, a member of Turkey’s Islamist-rooted governing party.
Gul received a majority of 339 votes in a parliamentary ballot in the capital, Ankara.
The secular opposition had thwarted an earlier bid by Gul for the presidency, but his party won a decisive victory in parliamentary elections last month, increasing its strength in the parliament.
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