Mass rally pressures Turk govt over president race

ISTANBUL, Apr 29 (Reuters) Up to a million people rallied in a sea of red Turkish flags on Sunday, accusing the government of planning an Islamist state and demanding it withdraw its presidential candidate.

But despite the Istanbul protests and a threat from the powerful army to intervene in the election, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, architect of Turkey's EU membership drive, said he would remain the ruling AK Party's candidate for head of state.

The protesters flooded the streets of Turkey's largest city, praising the army and denouncing Gul and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, whose AK Party enjoys a huge parliamentary majority, as a threat to a secular order separating state and religion.

''Turkey is secular and will remain secular,'' they chanted.

''Turkey is under threat from the AK Party leadership... We will not be able to express our thoughts like this if they stay in power,'' said protester Cigdem Yilmaz, 22, a student.

Top Turkish businessmen called for early parliamentary elections, which the AK party would appear well placed to win.

Many secularists are worried by Gul's Islamist past and the fact his wife wears the Muslim headscarf banned in universities and public offices. But the AK Party, which has vigorously pressed liberal reforms and European Union membership ambitions, since election in 2002, denies any secret agenda.

''As a woman I want to be free... We are here to protest against being covered,'' said Canan Karatay, president of Istanbul Science University.

But Gul, a gently spoken diplomat known to EU leaders and viewed with confidence on markets, gave no ground.

''The process (of electing a president) has begun and will continue ... There can be no question of my candidacy being withdrawn,'' Gul told reporters in the capital Ankara.

DEFIANCE Such defiance would have been unthinkable 10 years ago when the army, with public support and without tanks, last ousted a democratically elected government it deemed too Islamist.

The AK Party, which is expected to win general elections due by November, has cut the powers of the military as part of its EU reform drive. The prospect of a member of the AK Party now becoming command-in-Chief of the armed forces and successor to secular republic founder Kemal Ataturk would gall the generals.

Secularists, including the generals, say Erdogan and Gul will show their true colours once they have the presidency, the last major state institution outside their control, and boost the role of religion in Turkish life.

The army General Staff raised the stakes in its row with Erdogan's government on Friday, hours after an inconclusive first round of voting in parliament on Gul's nomination, with a threat to intervene in the election.

The government, backed by the EU, human rights groups and even opposition parties, told the army not to meddle.

The Istanbul protesters said they backed the army, long viewed here as the ultimate guardian of the secular republic.

''The army did the right thing (in opposing Gul) but I don't think they'll do what they did in the 1980s,'' said 18-year-old student Ipek Hamzaoglu, 18, referring to a 1980 military coup.

The Istanbul rally mirrored a smaller one in Ankara two weeks ago against Erdogan running for president. After that protest, Erdogan nominated the more conciliatory Gul.

A second round of voting in parliament on Gul's nomination is set for Wednesday, though he is not expected to secure enough votes from deputies until a third round scheduled for May 9.

But the main secularist opposition party has asked the Constitutional Court to rule the presidential election invalid.

The court says it will try to deliver its verdict by Wednesday.

If the strongly secularist court upholds the opposition appeal, Erdogan must call an early parliamentary election.

Outgoing President Ahmet Necdet Sezer would remain in office until a new parliament could choose his successor.

If the court backs the government, the presidential election process would continue.

TUSIAD, the influential forum of Turkish big business, threw its weight behind an early general election today.

''To preserve the inseparable principles of democracy and secularism, an early general election is indispensable,'' TUSIAD said in a statement quoted by Turkish television channels.

The EU, which began accession talks with Turkey in 2005, and the United States, Ankara's NATO ally, have both called for a democratic and constitutional resolution of the crisis.

REUTERS JK BST2100