KEY POINTS:
ANKARA - Turkey is under pressure from the European Union to rein in its generals after the pro-secular military threatened to intervene in the Islamic-oriented Government amid turmoil over the election of a new president.
Olli Rehn, the EU expansion affairs commissioner, a keen supporter of Ankara's eventual accession to the bloc, warned the armed forces to stay out of politics, saying the election was a "test case" for the military's respect for democracy.
Turkey's secular elite has voiced grave concerns over the Government's choice of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as a presidential candidate, given his Islamist beliefs - his wife and daughter wear the headscarf.
Within hours of Gul's failure to win enough votes in a first round of voting at the weekend, the military, which has staged four coups in 50 years, posted a statement on the web invoking its role as defender of Turkey's secular traditions.
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