ANKARA, 7 August 2007 — Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan faces tough choices this week on building a new government and nominating a candidate for president that risk reigniting tensions with the powerful secular elite.
Erdogan, whose Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AK Party) swept back to power in parliamentary elections on July 22, received a mandate from President Ahmet Necdet Sezer yesterday to form a Cabinet that analysts say must accelerate economic and political reforms.
He has 45 days in which to name his government and win a vote of confidence in Parliament. Sezer, a secularist critic of Erdogan’s party, must also approve the government list. Erdogan may submit his list to Sezer as early as this week, but his choice of ministers will hinge on whether Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul decides to defy the secular establishment, including the army generals, and run again for the presidency. If Gul does run, Erdogan will need a new foreign minister.
But if Erdogan drops Gul, it would anger many in the AK Party and hand a moral victory to its secularist opponents in Parliament, the judiciary and the army just weeks after the pro-business party won nearly 50 percent of the votes in the election.
“Erdogan has a tough task. If he again nominates Gul, he risks fresh confrontation with the establishment. But giving up on Gul is also problematic,” said Wolfango Piccoli, a Turkey expert at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. The secularists object to Gul, an urbane diplomat, because of his Islamist past and his wife’s head scarf.
Erdogan gave little away yesterday about his plans. “Drawing on our experience of four years and eight months in government, we will hopefully form a stronger government that will overcome many shortcomings,” he told reporters at Sezer’s residence after receiving the mandate.
Erdogan said he would consult with opposition leaders on key issues, but added: “There is no rule that says we have to agree 100 percent on every matter.” Turkey’s powerful military, which just 10 years ago ousted an Islamist-oriented government in which Gul served, says the country’s next president must be a convinced secularist.
