Turkey Foreign Minster Abdullah Gul said on Sunday he was withdrawing from Turkey’s presidential election race after his AK Party failed to secure a quorum in parliament. “After this ... my candidacy is out of the question,” Gul told reporters in parliament. Turkey is in political crisis after a wave of secularist protests demanding the withdrawal of his candidacy and alarm in the military at the prospect of a former Islamist as the head of state and commander-in-chief. The military has removed four civilian governments in 50 years in a country which now hopes for the EU membership. The ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party failed to obtain the presence of 367 members of parliament to be able to hold a vote on whether or not to elect Gul as president. He was the only candidate standing.
A first round vote was annulled last week by the Constitutional Court, which ruled that two-thirds of parliament, or 367 members, had to be present for it to be valid. The courtÂ’s decision came in response to an opposition party appeal. Fighting back, the government organised a vote rerun while also calling early general elections and pushing for a change to the constitution to allow the public rather than parliament to elect the president.