Ankara
Abdullah Gul stepped down as Turkish prime minister this week so that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the ruling moderate Islamist party, could take over as head of government. Erdogan led his party to victory in last November’s election, but he couldn’t take office himself because of a 1998 conviction for “anti-secular sedition.” (The conviction was for publicly reading a poem that had a religious theme.) The new parliament, dominated by Islamists, promptly amended the constitution to allow the popular leader to hold office. Now that he’s prime minister, Erdogan is expected to call for a new vote on whether to allow U.S. troops to use Turkish territory to attack Iraq. Erdogan has greater influence with lawmakers than Gul, and he’s expected to secure permission for the U.S. military presence.
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