KEY POINTS:
The former Islamist Abdullah Gul is to withdraw his candidacy for Turkey's presidency in a move that could ease a crisis in the secular state, after his party failed to gain a quorum in parliament to elect him.
"After this... my candidacy is out of the question," Mr Gul, the Foreign Minister, told reporters after the roll-call in parliament. "I don't feel resentment."
Mr Gul, a leading architect of Turkey's EU membership bid, has not yet formally withdrawn, but the next president is expected to be elected only after early general polls on 22 July. He was the only candidate.
His bid, backed by the ruling AK Party, revealed a deep divide over the future direction of Turkey, which has a strongly secular constitution but a mainly Muslim population.
Parliament elects presidents for a single seven-year term.
Turkey, a Nato member, has seen a wave of protests by secularists who demanded that Mr Gul withdraw his candidacy.
That was accompanied by rising alarm in the military at the prospect of a former Islamist becoming president and commander-in-chief.
The military - which along with the judiciary and universities make up the core of the secular elite - has issued a public reminder it is the ultimate defender of the secular state.
The army has removed four civilian governments in 50 years in a country which now hopes for European Union membership.
"Many Turks are happy with the secular system and areused to a lifestyle that people have had for 100 years.
They are worried that an Arabisation of society may take place," Semih Idiz, a columnist at liberal daily Milliyet, said.
The AK Party, which has Islamist origins but denies an Islamist agenda now, failed to get the 367 deputies required to vote because most opposition parties boycotted the session.
Last week, the Constitutional Court annulled a first round ballot and ruled that two thirds of the chamber had to be present to validate a presidential vote.
In an attempt to fight back, the government organised a new vote, called early general elections, and is pushing for constitutional amendments that would let the public, not parliament, elect the president for a maximum of two five-year terms.
Parliament is now expected to deem the presidential election process invalid.
- INDEPENDENT
