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| Sunday, 17 November 2002 |
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Turkey set to name new prime minister ANKARA, Saturday (Reuters) Turkey appeared set to name its new prime minister on Saturday after a conservative party with Islamist roots swept to power in elections nearly two weeks ago. Financial markets have favoured Abdullah Gul, an economist who espouses close ties with the United States, as the best candidate to tackle tough reforms under a $16 billion International Monetary Fund loan pact aimed at dragging Turkey out of a deep economic crisis. A source in Gul's Justice and Development Party (AKP) told Reuters President Ahmet Necdet Sezer was expected to summon Gul on Saturday to appoint him prime minister designate. He would formally claim the post pending Sezer's approval of his cabinet, which could come on Sunday. NATO-member Turkey's first single-party government in 15 years would take office at a critical juncture that includes a possible U.S.-led attack on neighbouring Iraq, efforts to win date for EU talks at a December summit and a U.N. proposal to reunite Cyprus, where Turkey maintains 30,000 soldiers. AKP leader Tayyip Erdogan, who led the party to a landslide victory in the November 3 election, cannot be prime minister because of a conviction for Islamic sedition. Erdogan met Sezer on Friday to offer Gul and two others as candidates for prime minister, AKP sources told Reuters. The AKP was formed from the moderate wing of a banned Islamist party, but says it has broken with its past and is a conservative mainstream group. Nevertheless, Erdogan remains suspect in the eyes of the fiercely secular military, which pressured Turkey's first Islamist-led government from power. The former Istanbul mayor has made clear he will remain a force behind the new government, pledging to see through reforms to further Turkey's EU ambitions. Next week he will tour European capitals to lobby support for a date. On Saturday Erdogan was to fly to Cyprus to meet Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, who was given a plan to reunite the partitioned Mediterranean island by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week. But Denktash on Friday postponed his return home from New York, where he underwent two heart operations last month, after doctors said he appeared to be suffering from an infection. Erdogan has said that solving the standoff on Cyprus, a frontrunning EU candidate, would help Turkey's own quest to join the affluent bloc. Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since Turkey invaded in 1974 after a brief Athens-backed coup. Turkey is also anxiously watching developments next door in Iraq. Ankara could be called upon to open airbases to the United States if it decides to strike Baghdad. A war could unleash economic and social upheaval at home, Turkey fears. |
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