Masses protest against Turkish candidate

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer

ISTANBUL, Turkey - At least 700,000 people marched Sunday in a massive protest against the possible election of an observant Muslim as president, a conflict that is pitting Turkey's religiously oriented ruling party against the deeply secular military and civilian establishment.

Waving the country's red flag and singing nationalist songs, demonstrators in Istanbul demanded the resignation of the pro-Islamic government, calling Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a traitor. Erdogan's foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, is widely expected to win the presidential election by the country's 550-seat parliament.

"We don't want a covered woman in Ataturk's presidential palace," protester Ayse Bari, a 67-year-old housewife, said in reference to Gul's wife Hayrunisaah who wears the Muslim headscarf. "We want civilized, modern people there."

The election has reignited a conflict over Turkey's national identity that has brewed since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, an army officer in World War I, founded the secular republic after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. He gave the vote to women, restricted Islamic dress and replaced the Arabic script with the Roman alphabet.

But Islam remained potent at the grassroots level, and some leaders with a religious background have portrayed themselves as an alternative to the secular establishment.

Many, including powerful generals, fear Gul would use the presidency — a post with veto power over legislation — to assist his ally, Erdogan, in chipping away at the separation of state and religion. For example, secularists want to preserve a ban on Islamic headscarves in government offices and other public places; Gul's wife once appealed to the European Court of Human Rights for the right to wear the scarf to a university.

The military hinted it may step in to resolve the deadlock over Gul in parliament. And many Turks are calling for early elections in the hope of replacing the parliament, which is dominated by Gul's pro-Islamic ruling party.

"Turkey is secular and will remain secular!" shouted thousands of protesters, many of whom traveled to Istanbul from across the country overnight.

Turkish police estimated their numbers at about 700,000 and cordoned off the protest area, conducting searches at several entry points.

More than 300,000 took part in a similar rally in the capital Ankara two weeks ago.

"This government is the enemy of Ataturk," said 63-year-old Ahmet Yurdakul, a retired government employee among the demonstrators on Sunday. "It wants to drag Turkey to the dark ages."

On Friday, Gul failed to win a first round of voting in parliament after opposition lawmakers boycotted the vote. The opposition then appealed to the Constitutional Court to annul the result on grounds that there was not a quorum present at the time of the vote. That night, the military threatened to intervene in the election and warned the government to curb Islamic influences.

"It should not be forgotten that the Turkish armed forces is one of the sides in this debate and the absolute defender of secularism," the military said in a statement. "When necessary, they will display its stance and attitudes very clearly. No one should doubt that."

A day later, the government, showing confidence unknown in past civilian administrations, rebuked the military and said it was "unthinkable" for the institution to challenge its political leaders in a democracy.

But Gul was not swayed by the threat.

"It is out of the question to withdraw my candidacy," he said Sunday.

The current president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, is a strong secularist who acted as a check on the pro-Islamic government.

A decade ago, the Turkish military sent tanks into the streets in a campaign that forced the pro-Islamic prime minister to resign. Now Turks are wondering again how far the armed forces will go to settle another power struggle between their government and the secular establishment.

The military's threat to intervene in a disputed election could also damage Turkey's troubled efforts to join the European Union, which has urged the Muslim nation to reduce the political influence of the army.

"We hope that one day Turkey can join the European Union, but for that, Turkey has to be a real European country, in economic and political terms," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on CNN's "Late Edition."

Much has changed since Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan resigned on July 18, 1997, ceding power to a pro-Western coalition partner in what was labeled a "soft" coup. Under the current government, Turkey has reined in inflation and implemented reforms backed by the EU.

These ingredients, signs of a maturing democracy, suggest the military would be very reluctant to topple the elected government of Erdogan, a drastic step that could represent a return to a chaotic, polarized era that most Turks would rather forget. Yet, if it feels pushed, few doubt that the military will challenge the politicians.

The court's ruling on whether a quorum was present at the vote on Friday is expected soon. A ruling for the government could lead to a second round of voting on Wednesday. Gul is the only candidate and is expected to prevail by a third round planned for May 9. A ruling for the opposition would stop the vote, possibly leading to early general elections.

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Associated Press writers Benjamin Harvey in Istanbul and Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara contributed to this report.

Iran to join U.S. at conference on Iraq

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - Iran agreed Sunday to join the U.S. and other countries at a conference on Iraq this week, raising hopes the government in Tehran would help stabilize its violent neighbor and stem the flow of guns and bombs over the border.

In an apparent effort to drive home that point, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told an Iranian envoy that the persistent violence in Iraq — some of it carried out by the Shiite militias Iran is accused of arming — could spill over into neighboring countries, including those that are "supposed to support the Iraqi government."

Iraq's other neighbors as well as Egypt, Bahrain and representatives of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members have agreed to attend the meeting Thursday and Friday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheik.

The conference will also include Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, raising the possibility of a rare direct encounter between high-level U.S. and Iranian officials.

In Washington, Rice would not rule out a meeting with the Iranians, whose delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

"But what do we need to do? It's quite obvious. Stop the flow of arms to foreign fighters. Stop the flow of foreign fighters across the borders," Rice told ABC's "This Week."

Hours earlier, al-Maliki's office announced that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had telephoned to say a delegation from his country would attend the conference.

Iraqi leaders had been pressing for the Iranians to attend the Egypt meeting for weeks, but Iran refused to commit, in part because of fears that it would come under pressure from the U.S. and others about its nuclear program.

In addition, the Iranians have been lobbying for release of five Iranians held by the U.S. in Iraq since January. The U.S. has accused the five of links to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard unit that arms and trains Shiite extremists in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The decision to attend "came after consultations between Iraqi officials and the Iranian president," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in an interview with Iranian state television.

Senior Iranian envoy Ali Larijani flew to Baghdad on Sunday for talks with al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi officials — the highest-ranking Iranian official to visit Iraq since the collapse of
Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.

During their meeting, Larijani told al-Maliki that all countries that want stability in the region "have no choice but to support Iraq's elected government."

Al-Maliki replied that terrorist attacks in Iraq would hurt all countries in the region, "including those that are supposed to support the Iraqi government," according to a statement by the prime minister's office. Although al-Maliki did not refer to specific terror groups, it appeared that his remarks were not limited to Sunni insurgents but included Shiite extremists, as well.

On Sunday, U.S. troops in Baghdad clashed with Shiite gunmen in north Baghdad, police said. There was no report on casualties but police said several gunmen were arrested.

In Tehran, the head of the Iranian parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Boroojerdi, also said Iran's failure to participate in Sharm el-Sheik would lay the Islamic republic open to criticism from the United States.

"Iran should attend the conference, actively and powerfully," Boroojerdi was quoted as saying by Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Apart from security issues, the U.S. and Iraq hope the conference will produce an agreement to forgive Iraq's huge debts and offer financial assistance in return for an Iraqi pledge to implement political and economic reforms.

But Iraq's Arab neighbors are expected to demand that the Baghdad government, dominated by Shiites and Kurds, do more to reach out to its own disgruntled Sunni Arabs before they pledge substantial aid.

On Sunday, President Bush called Iraq's Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, to discuss the importance of the reconciliation process and the need for all Iraqi parties to work together to stabilize the country, according to Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

The Iraqis, for their part, were anxious for the Iranians to attend to give them leverage against their Sunni-dominated neighbors and to help press their case that Sunni extremists, including al-Qaida, pose the gravest threat to stability.

Underscoring the threat, Iraqi police reported at least 52 people were killed or found dead Sunday, a relatively low figure in recent weeks.

They included five people killed in a car bombing in the southern city of Basra and 10 men whose bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped in various parts of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Separately, Britain said one of its soldiers was shot to death Sunday while on patrol in Basra. The death brings to 146 the number of British troops killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion — 12 of them this month.

In Baghdad, U.S. forces fired an artillery barrage in southern Baghdad Sunday morning, rocking the capital with loud explosions.

The size and the pattern of the explosions, which began after 9 a.m. and lasted for at least 15 minutes, suggested they were directed at Sunni militant neighborhoods along the city's southern rim. Such blasts are common in the evening but are rare at that time of day.

In a brief statement to The Associated Press, the U.S. military said it fired the artillery from a forward operating base near Iraq's Rasheed military base southeast of Baghdad, but provided no other details.

American troops also detained 72 suspected insurgents and seized nitric acid and other bomb-making materials during raids on Sunday targeting al-Qaida in Iraq in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of the capital, and Salahuddin province, a volatile Sunni area northwest of the capital, the U.S. military said.

Elsewhere in Iraq, the death toll from a suicide car bomb attack in the Shiite holy city of Karbala rose to 68 as residents dug through the debris of heavily damaged shops.