Vote scheduled in bid to end standoff
From Times Wire Reports
Turkey’s parliament moved general elections to July 22 to try to end a standoff between secularists and former Islamists.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed early elections after last week’s first round of the presidential election in parliament was ruled invalid.
Secularists want to block Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, the ruling party’s presidential candidate.
They fear that he and Erdogan, both former Islamists, plan to chip away at Turkey’s separation of church and state, a claim the two deny.
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