Tweet
GUL'S ADVISOR SAYS PRESIDENT MAY RUN FOR SECOND TERM IN OFFICE
Cihan News Agency (CNA)
July 30, 2012 Monday
Turkey
ISTANBUL (CIHAN)- Presidency Press Secretary Ahmet Sever, who is also
President Abdullah Gul's press and public relations advisor, has said
the president may run for a second term in office in the presidential
elections scheduled for 2014 as he is eligible for re-election.
"My personal view is that Mr. Gul may run for the presidency again.
The Constitutional Court ruled that he is eligible for a second term
in office. So, why not announce his candidacy for a new term? The
decision is up to him; he may be upset with me for expressing my point
of view in this way. But it is unfair that some people are fostering
the feeling that he is about to complete his tenure and should get
out of the way," Sever stated in an interview with the Vatan daily.
The press secretary's comments targeted some members of the Justice and
Development Party (AK Party). When the Constitutional Court rejected in
June an appeal filed by the main opposition Republican People's Party
(CHP) requesting the annulment of a law limiting the presidential term
to seven years for incumbent Gul and said the president is eligible
to run for another term, some AK Party members said Gul is unlikely
to announce that he will run in the 2014 presidential elections.
According to Sever, such statements by Cabinet members upset the
president. "The president had taken care not to appear to be in
conflict ... with the prime minister. And he is still doing so. But
it was not nice to see that some prominent figures of the party did
not show the same concern," he added.
There is growing public and political expectation that Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan will run for the presidency in the 2014 elections
and that he will make it to the Cankaya presidential palace. The
prime minister has never made an implicit statement to this end,
but has made indirect remarks to this effect on various occasions.
Sever also complained that several polling companies have cultivated
an atmosphere that is against a second term in office for President
Gul. "A number of opinion polls have been published in the newspapers.
One of them, for example, shows several possible candidates,
and Gul is the only candidate who does not receive even a single
vote from participants in the poll. How can this be? It is really
thought-provoking," he said.
Ever since he was elected to the presidency in 2007, Gul, a former
prime minister and foreign minister, has been working hard to reach
out to all segments of society and to open the doors of the Cankaya
presidential palace to the public. A mild and soft-spoken leader, Gul
also assumes a mediating role among political parties, helping them
reach consensus on national issues on which they are in disagreement.
In response to a question over rumors that the president is planning
to vie for the leadership of an international organization such as
the United Nations, Sever said: "This is an assumption by other people.
Mr. Gul has never expressed such a desire or plan. Everyone is
wondering about what he will do in the future. They want to know if
he will run for the presidency again or not. But the president does
not speak about this. He does not give the smallest clue. He prefers
to keep silent. He only says he will deal with the issue when the
time comes."
The press secretary also recalled the hard times Gul went through
during his presidential election bid in 2007. He said the president
was threatened with a military coup if he insisted on running for the
presidency. "But Mr. Gul did not pay heed to the threats. He said he
had set his heart on the [presidential] bid and refused to back down,"
he added.
After the AK Party announced Gul as the presidential candidate in 2007,
Gul became the center of a heated controversy because his wife wears
the Islamic headscarf, which Turkey's elitist circles believe runs
contrary to the country's secularist nature. Shortly afterwards,
the General Staff published a sharply worded statement which said
the military was following the debate over secularism with "concern"
and would "openly display its position and attitude when it becomes
necessary." The CHP threatened to walk out of Parliament if the AK
Party presidential nominee's spouse continued to wear the headscarf.
Shortly after, a former prosecutor put forward an idea based on his
interpretation of the Constitution, claiming the parliamentary quorum
for a presidential election was 367. The AK Party held 361 seats
in Parliament and Gul received 361 votes from his party's deputies
in the first round of voting. Gul's election to the presidential
seat was annulled, and the elections were re-held after the general
elections in the same year in which the AK Party returned to power
with 47 percent of the national vote. The governing party passed a
constitutional package which said the president would be elected in
a public referendum. A referendum was held, and Gul was elected as
Turkey's 11th president.
Sever also said the president did not wish to engage in any controversy
with any person or political party, even though he has been subjected
to injustices several times during his tenure. He also added that
Gul is saddened to see that two major initiatives undertaken by the
AK Party government, solving Turkey's long-standing Kurdish question
and thawing the ice between Turkey and Armenia, have not yet yielded
results.
According to Sever, Gul paid several visits to several of Turkey's
predominantly Kurdish provinces and Yerevan in an attempt to display
his support for the government's initiatives. "Mr. Gul had said
conditions were favorable for the solution of the Kurdish and Armenian
questions, but the initiatives were discontinued, which really upset
the president," Sever stated.
Sever's remarks about a possible run for president by Gul in the 2014
elections became a hot topic of debate on social networking websites
in Turkey on Monday. Some Twitter users suggested that one sign of
Gul's possible candidacy is an open indication of a rift between the
president and the prime minister.
Others claimed that Gul was upset by Erdogan's decision to merge Numan
Kurtulmus's Voice of the People Party (HAS Party) with the AK Party,
believing that he may not be as strong as he hopes in the party if
he returns to active politics after leaving the post of president.
AK Party Deputy Chairman Huseyin Celik responded to the claims with
tweets in which he ruled out a rift between Gul and Erdogan. "There
is a deep friendship and bond of brotherhood between Mr. Gul and
Erdogan which cannot be given up for [political] seats or prestige,"
read one of his tweets. When speaking to journalists, Celik also said
he did not think Gul would announce his candidacy if Erdogan publicly
declares that he is planning to run for president. He said the prime
minister had "made sacrifices" for Gul in the past, and the president
should "respond to the gesture in kind."
Cihan News Agency (CNA)
July 30, 2012 Monday
Turkey
ISTANBUL (CIHAN)- Presidency Press Secretary Ahmet Sever, who is also
President Abdullah Gul's press and public relations advisor, has said
the president may run for a second term in office in the presidential
elections scheduled for 2014 as he is eligible for re-election.
"My personal view is that Mr. Gul may run for the presidency again.
The Constitutional Court ruled that he is eligible for a second term
in office. So, why not announce his candidacy for a new term? The
decision is up to him; he may be upset with me for expressing my point
of view in this way. But it is unfair that some people are fostering
the feeling that he is about to complete his tenure and should get
out of the way," Sever stated in an interview with the Vatan daily.
The press secretary's comments targeted some members of the Justice and
Development Party (AK Party). When the Constitutional Court rejected in
June an appeal filed by the main opposition Republican People's Party
(CHP) requesting the annulment of a law limiting the presidential term
to seven years for incumbent Gul and said the president is eligible
to run for another term, some AK Party members said Gul is unlikely
to announce that he will run in the 2014 presidential elections.
According to Sever, such statements by Cabinet members upset the
president. "The president had taken care not to appear to be in
conflict ... with the prime minister. And he is still doing so. But
it was not nice to see that some prominent figures of the party did
not show the same concern," he added.
There is growing public and political expectation that Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan will run for the presidency in the 2014 elections
and that he will make it to the Cankaya presidential palace. The
prime minister has never made an implicit statement to this end,
but has made indirect remarks to this effect on various occasions.
Sever also complained that several polling companies have cultivated
an atmosphere that is against a second term in office for President
Gul. "A number of opinion polls have been published in the newspapers.
One of them, for example, shows several possible candidates,
and Gul is the only candidate who does not receive even a single
vote from participants in the poll. How can this be? It is really
thought-provoking," he said.
Ever since he was elected to the presidency in 2007, Gul, a former
prime minister and foreign minister, has been working hard to reach
out to all segments of society and to open the doors of the Cankaya
presidential palace to the public. A mild and soft-spoken leader, Gul
also assumes a mediating role among political parties, helping them
reach consensus on national issues on which they are in disagreement.
In response to a question over rumors that the president is planning
to vie for the leadership of an international organization such as
the United Nations, Sever said: "This is an assumption by other people.
Mr. Gul has never expressed such a desire or plan. Everyone is
wondering about what he will do in the future. They want to know if
he will run for the presidency again or not. But the president does
not speak about this. He does not give the smallest clue. He prefers
to keep silent. He only says he will deal with the issue when the
time comes."
The press secretary also recalled the hard times Gul went through
during his presidential election bid in 2007. He said the president
was threatened with a military coup if he insisted on running for the
presidency. "But Mr. Gul did not pay heed to the threats. He said he
had set his heart on the [presidential] bid and refused to back down,"
he added.
After the AK Party announced Gul as the presidential candidate in 2007,
Gul became the center of a heated controversy because his wife wears
the Islamic headscarf, which Turkey's elitist circles believe runs
contrary to the country's secularist nature. Shortly afterwards,
the General Staff published a sharply worded statement which said
the military was following the debate over secularism with "concern"
and would "openly display its position and attitude when it becomes
necessary." The CHP threatened to walk out of Parliament if the AK
Party presidential nominee's spouse continued to wear the headscarf.
Shortly after, a former prosecutor put forward an idea based on his
interpretation of the Constitution, claiming the parliamentary quorum
for a presidential election was 367. The AK Party held 361 seats
in Parliament and Gul received 361 votes from his party's deputies
in the first round of voting. Gul's election to the presidential
seat was annulled, and the elections were re-held after the general
elections in the same year in which the AK Party returned to power
with 47 percent of the national vote. The governing party passed a
constitutional package which said the president would be elected in
a public referendum. A referendum was held, and Gul was elected as
Turkey's 11th president.
Sever also said the president did not wish to engage in any controversy
with any person or political party, even though he has been subjected
to injustices several times during his tenure. He also added that
Gul is saddened to see that two major initiatives undertaken by the
AK Party government, solving Turkey's long-standing Kurdish question
and thawing the ice between Turkey and Armenia, have not yet yielded
results.
According to Sever, Gul paid several visits to several of Turkey's
predominantly Kurdish provinces and Yerevan in an attempt to display
his support for the government's initiatives. "Mr. Gul had said
conditions were favorable for the solution of the Kurdish and Armenian
questions, but the initiatives were discontinued, which really upset
the president," Sever stated.
Sever's remarks about a possible run for president by Gul in the 2014
elections became a hot topic of debate on social networking websites
in Turkey on Monday. Some Twitter users suggested that one sign of
Gul's possible candidacy is an open indication of a rift between the
president and the prime minister.
Others claimed that Gul was upset by Erdogan's decision to merge Numan
Kurtulmus's Voice of the People Party (HAS Party) with the AK Party,
believing that he may not be as strong as he hopes in the party if
he returns to active politics after leaving the post of president.
AK Party Deputy Chairman Huseyin Celik responded to the claims with
tweets in which he ruled out a rift between Gul and Erdogan. "There
is a deep friendship and bond of brotherhood between Mr. Gul and
Erdogan which cannot be given up for [political] seats or prestige,"
read one of his tweets. When speaking to journalists, Celik also said
he did not think Gul would announce his candidacy if Erdogan publicly
declares that he is planning to run for president. He said the prime
minister had "made sacrifices" for Gul in the past, and the president
should "respond to the gesture in kind."