New secularist protests pressure Turkish government

MANISA, Turkey, May 5 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of secularist flag-waving Turks rallied for the third big anti-government protest in a month today as conflict rages over the role of religion in the Muslim country's politics.

A parliamentary committee today accepted Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's proposals for constitutional changes to let the people, rather than parliament, elect the president, the Anatolian news agency reported.

The changes, which might increase the chances of the ruling AK party's presidential candidate, former Islamist Abdullah Gul, of becoming head of state, could be approved by lawmakers in coming days.

Tension is high after a warning from the pro-secular army against Foreign Minister Gul and a court decision to annul the first round of parliamentary voting for the presidency.

Marchers in the western city of Manisa, estimated by police to number 60-70,000, called today for the withdrawal of Gul's candidacy. Two smaller protests were held in other west coast cities.

Gul's candidacy for head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces particularly irritates a military establishment which sees itself as the ultimate guardian of the secular state and has removed four governments in 50 years.

Erdogan, whose party has a majority in parliament, has hit back at secularist critics with unprecedented defiance, bringing forward national elections by more than three months.

Newspapers suggest his proposed constitutional amendment has popular support. But it could face legal challenges, and analysts and diplomats say it will further anger the armed forces and pro-secular elite.

Protesters, who included headscarved women and men in military attire, packed the streets of Manisa with tight rows of red Turkish flags and pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who threw religion out of public life when he founded the modern republic after World War One.

''No way for sharia (Islamic law),'' chanted demonstrators.

today's marches follow a million-strong demonstration in Istanbul last Sunday and a protest of hundreds of thousands in the capital Ankara three weeks ago.

''We're here to protect the republic and teach them a lesson.

I hope they learn their lesson,'' marcher Ahmet Bulut said.

ATATURK'S ENEMY Manisa is in the hometown of parliament speaker and senior AK Party member Bulent Arinc, who has angered the military for urging debate on secularism. Local media said police had tightened security around his house.

''The speaker of parliament is Ataturk's enemy,'' protesters shouted.

Two centre-right parties, ANAP and True Path, announced a merger today which could strengthen opposition to the AK Party at the July 22 general election.

Since sweeping to power in 2002 after a financial crisis, the AK Party has promoted liberal economic reforms in a drive to join the European Union and has wooed foreign investors. Some of the EU-backed reforms have reduced the army's formal influence in state administration.

Secularists, many of them ordinary Turks, fear that once the AK Party controls parliament and the veto-wielding presidency, it will chip away at the separation of state and religion.

Gul was a member of the last government to be pushed from power by the army and spent his honeymoon in a military jail during a 1980 coup. But his party says its record in office shows it respects secularism.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was quoted today as expressing support for Gul's presidential ambitions.

''I am convinced that Foreign Minister Gul would continue his successful work as president,'' Solana was quoted by newspaper Bild am Sonntag as saying in an article to appear tomorrow.

A rerun of the presidential vote is due in parliament tomorrow.

But after the constitutional court's ruling that 367 deputies have to be present for the vote to be valid, a quorum is unlikely to be reached.

REUTERS SG VC1930