Turkey's new president to approve reform cabinet

ANKARA, Aug 29 (Reuters) Abdullah Gul's first task as Turkish president will be to approve the new cabinet of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan today, hoping to push ahead with stalled reforms needed to join the EU.

Gul, who as foreign minister helped Turkey win EU accession talks status in 2005, is the first politician with a background in political Islam to become president in mainly Muslim but constitutionally secular Turkey, over the army's opposition.

Erdogan is expected to present a pro-EU, pro-business cabinet list to Gul at 1830 IST. The ruling AK Party won a sweeping re-election in parliamentary polls in July but was unable to form a new government because of objections by Gul's predecessor, staunchly secularist Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Turks will closely follow the military's reaction to Gul after its top brass stayed away from his swearing-in ceremony yesterday.

The military elite fears his presidency will lead to a creeping subversion of the secular order.

''The military did not watch the commander-in-chief,'' said a headline in liberal Aksam newspaper, in a reference to one of Gul's duties as president. It was believed to be the first time the military leadership had been absent from such a ceremony.

Turkey's military considers itself the ultimate guardian of the secular republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and has ousted four governments in the past 60 years. Its last such move was as recently as 1997, against a government it considered too Islamist, in which Gul was a minister.

Buyukanit rattled markets today when he warned that he saw 'centres of evil'' seeking to undermine the secular republic, a statement suggesting the army would not stand on the sidelines if it saw the separation of religion and state threatened.

END OF CRISIS? Many Turks hope months of political turmoil sparked by the standoff between the AK Party and the secular elite, including army generals, judges and politicians, has come to an end.

Gul pledged to uphold the secular system and the principles of Ataturk in an inaugural speech which newspapers called conciliatory.

''Turkey has taken a step towards normalisation. If we are to judge what sort of president Abdullah Gul is during his term in office, we can only measure it in terms of how faithful he is to this pledge,'' said Radikal newspaper editor Ismet Berkan.

The controversy about Gul is symbolised by his wife's wearing of the Muslim headscarf, a garment banned in public offices and universities. Secularists fear it will undermine the separation of state and religion.

''Gul is above all a compromiser,'' said Mehmet Ali Birand, a leading Turkish commentator. ''Gul has the necessary qualifications to enable him to open Cankaya's (the presidential palace's) doors to everybody and become everybody's president.'' Gul's presidency will be very different from the reclusive Sezer's. He is expected to take an active role in international politics, and in particular to help push Turkey towards EU membership, despite rising opposition within Europe. In his inaugural speech he called for further EU-driven reforms.

Ankara has been criticised for almost bringing to a standstill reforms required to join the bloc. The government has blamed the delays on elections.

REUTERS SS PM1700