ANKARA, 6 September 2007 — Turkey’s powerful army leadership stayed away from Abdullah Gul’s first reception as president yesterday in a move widely viewed as a snub to the ex-Islamist whose election the generals had opposed. The staunchly secular military opposed Gul becoming head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces because of his Islamist past and the fact his wife wears the Muslim head scarf.
They fear Gul and his ruling center-right Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which also has Islamist roots, want to undermine Turkey’s strict separation of state and religion. The office of the president played down the no-show, saying the generals had indicated they had other pressing engagements.
“The information that the chief of the General Staff and the forces’ commanders will be outside Ankara for previously planned military activities was given to the president on Aug. 30, actually before this invitation was planned,” Gul’s office said in a statement.
The reception was attended by ministers, lawmakers, judges and diplomats, but was also boycotted by the fiercely secularist main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Top-selling daily Hurriyet said on its website that land forces training general, Erdal Ceylanoglu, a midranking member of the General Staff represented the military, along with more than a dozen other military officials.
Ceylanoglu played a key role in helping topple the Islamist Welfare Party-led government in 1997, in which Gul served as minister, when he ordered tanks to Ankara’s Sincan district. Hurriyet said some observers interpreted Ceylanoglu’s presence as a stern message to Gul and the AK Party government.
The head of the military General Staff, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, and other top generals also stayed away from Gul’s swearing-in ceremony in Parliament last week and failed to greet the president according to protocol at a military ceremony.
Gul’s wife did not attend yesterday’s reception, a sign he wants to avoid tensions with the secular elite. The head scarf has not been traditionally worn at the presidential palace.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s new government won a vote of confidence in Parliament yesterday, opening the way for more liberal political and economic reforms in the European Union candidate nation. The AK Party won a fresh five-year mandate in July 22 elections.
