Thousands of Turks have gathered in two western cities in the third anti-government protest in a month amid a conflict over the role of religion in the country's politics. Saturday's protests in Canakkale and Manisa, near the Aegean coast, follow huge pro-secular rallies in Ankara and Istanbul attended by more than a million people. Marchers called for Abdullah Gul, the presidential candidate of the ruling AK party, whose roots are in political Islam, to withdraw from the election. Many demonstrators carried Turkish flags and posters of Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's founder who insisted on a separation of religion and state. In Manisa, crowds shouted: "Turkey is secular and will remain secular. Count how many of us there are, Tayyip [Turkey's prime minister]."