Turkey’s military issued a stern warning on Monday about the threat to secularism on the eve of an expected triumph of the Islamic-oriented government in the presidential election of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. There were no signs that the military planned to disrupt Parliament’s vote on Gul, but the statement was a reminder of its past interventions to enforce the separation of mosque and state.This time, the military is dealing with a government that renewed its mandate in a resounding election victory in July and an emboldened prime minister who has urged the generals to stay out of politics. Gen Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the military, said in a note on the military’s website: “Our nation has been watching the behaviour of those separatists who can’t embrace Turkey’s unitary nature and centres of evil that systematically try to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic.”
Gul, whose earlier bid to win election as president was blocked by the secular establishment because of concerns about his background in political Islam, was expected to win the post on Tuesday. He earlier withdrew his bid in the face of mounting criticism from the secular opposition, which was backed by the military and the top court.
Erdogan, who had picked Gul as his candidate, called early general elections to defuse tensions. ErdoganÂ’s ruling party emerged with a strong majority, which most analysts here interpreted as the peopleÂ’s support for GulÂ’s candidacy. Gul renewed his presidential bid after the elections. He will need only a simple majority in the third round on Tuesday. His party holds 341 of the 550 seats in Parliament.