One million Turks rally against government

ISTANBUL, Apr 29 (Reuters) As many as one million people rallied in a sea of red Turkish flags in Istanbul today, accusing the government of planning an Islamist state and demanding it withdraw its presidential candidate.

Despite the 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,'' and ''government resign,'' they chanted.

The AK Party faces its biggest crisis since it was elected in 2002. Parliament elects the president, who carries great symbolic weight and has important veto and appointment powers.

''We are here to stop the creation of an Islamic state,'' said businessman Irfan Kadim, 35. ''We fear for the secular republic.'' Many secularists are worried by Gul's Islamist past and the fact his wife wears the Muslim headscarf banned in universities and public offices.

The AK Party, which has vigorously pressed liberal reforms and overseen strong economic growth, denies any Islamist agenda.

The protests wound down by early evening. One police official told Reuters more than 750,000 attended, while CNN Turk said the district town hall put attendance at 1.2 million.

Many analysts say the only way to diffuse the crisis would be to call early general elections, scheduled for November.

Turkey's top business association, TUSIAD, backed a call for early elections, which opinion polls showed the AK Party would be well placed to win. Secularists hope a newly elected parliament would chose a consensus president.

Gul, a soft-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 There can be no question of my candidacy being withdrawn,'' Gul told reporters in the capital Ankara.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 Only 10 years ago the army, with public support, hounded out of office a democratically elected Islamist government.

Now the AK Party has cut the powers of the army as part of its EU reforms. The prospect of an AK Party member becoming commander-in-chief of the military and successor to secular republic founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk would gall the generals.

Secularists, including generals and judges, 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 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 Istanbul protesters said they backed the army, long viewed here as the ultimate guardian of the secular republic.

''Turkey is a Muslim country but we don't want to live like in Iran. I fear for the future,'' said student Ipek Hamzaoglu.

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.

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 JS BST2257