SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND citizens of the Turkish Republic rallied in Istanbul Sunday. Two weeks ago, 300,000 participated in a similar demonstration. Marchers in the latest protest chanted, “neither sharia nor a coup, but real democracy.” They and millions of their peers have found themselves beset by bad choices, and with no positive outcome in sight.
Commenting to foreigners, Turks tend to simplify their dilemma, posing it exclusively as a confrontation between radical Islam and secularism. The threat of the former is represented by Abdullah Gul, the chosen presidential candidate of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK party (Justice and Development). Gul is currently the AK’s foreign minister. Balloting for the presidency was to have taken place May 9 but has now been called off by Turkey’s supreme court, after complaints from secular opposition parties that the first round of voting (which takes place within parliament) violated rules calling for a two-thirds quorum.
