ANKARA, 15 August 2007 — A Turkish presidential hopeful whose candidacy has raised fears about the possible blurring of the line between mosque and state said yesterday he would strengthen secularism and the country’s EU membership bid.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul made his statements at a news conference after submitting to Parliament his application to run for president, pressing ahead with a candidacy that triggered an earlier political crisis and forced the government to call early elections. He is almost certain to win the presidency.

The powerful Turkish military and secular parties fear that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s and Gul’s Justice and Development Party will use control of both Parliament and the presidency to chip away at the separation of state and religion and put an Islamic stamp on the state by appointing religious-minded officials.

Turkey’s leading secular party, the Republican People’s Party, will boycott the presidential vote because Gul’s Islamic past posed a threat to the secular regime, deputy chairman Mustafa Ozyurek said.

The party’s boycott will not be enough to stop his election, but it signals the distress felt by the military-backed secular establishment regarding Gul’s candidacy.

Ozyurek, accusing Gul of targeting the secular system in speeches and writings in the past, said his party would also boycott ceremonies and trips attended by Gul, if he is elected president. This would demonstrate for the first time a crisis of confidence between the Republican People’s Party — established by the founder of the modern and secular republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk — and the president.

“’The end of the republic has come; we will change the secular system,”’ Ozyurek quoted Gul as saying in one instance. He said Gul, 56, made his comments after the age of 40 and it was unlikely for someone to change after that age.

“The election of someone who has made such comments in the past as president would shake the pillars of the republic,” Ozyurek said.

Both Gul and Erdogan have rejected the label of Islamic hard-liners citing their promotion of sweeping reforms as a means of advancing a bid to join the European Union. On the other hand, they have also sought to improve ties with the Islamic world.

Gul said yesterday his main goals would be “to protect secularism.”

“No one should have any concerns” about that, he said. His presidency, he added, would embrace all the Turkish people.

“I will take into account all different views,” he said. “Objectivity will certainly be my principle; I ask that no one doubt this.”

“EU membership is all government’s goal. I will help the government in reaching this target,” Gul said.