TURKEY: Turkish PM Erdogan receives mandate from president to form new government

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan receives a mandate from the country's president to form a new government, two weeks after his ruling AK Party won a decisive victory in parliamentary elections. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Monday (August 6) vowed to build a strong government but ducked questions about a looming presidential election which risks reigniting tensions between his Islamist-rooted AK Party and Turkey's powerful secular elite, which includes army generals. "Drawing on our experience of four years and eight months in government, we will hopefully form a stronger government that will overcome many shortcomings," Erdogan told reporters after receiving the mandate from President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Erdogan has 45 days in which to name his cabinet and win a vote of confidence in parliament. Sezer, a staunchly secularist critic of Erdogan's party, must also approve the government list. Turkish media say Erdogan could submit the cabinet list to Sezer as early as this week. Attention will focus especially on who he nominates for politically sensitive ministries such as education, justice and the interior. Erdogan must also shortly decide his party's candidates for the president and speaker of parliament. The election of the speaker, number two in Turkey's state hierarchy after the president, is scheduled to take place in parliament on Thursday. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has signalled he plans to run again for the presidency, despite stiff opposition from the secular establishment, which dislikes his Islamist past and his wife's Muslim headscarf. The secularists derailed Gul's first bid to become head of state in a parliamentary vote in May. That forced Erdogan to call the parliamentary polls months ahead of schedule. Turkey's new parliament reconvened on Saturday for an oath-taking ceremony. Erdogan's AK Party has 341 seats in the 550-member assembly, where the secularist CHP, ultra-nationalist MHP and pro-Kurdish DTP are also represented.

ITN Source | August 6, 2007

Tags:. .told. .past. .elections. .list. .experience