+ GMT Select Your Local Time London GMT Johannesburg Lagos Cairo Accra Mogadishu Abuja Cape Town Free Town Addis Ababa Austria Bahrain Bangladesh Australia Sydney Austria Bahrain Bangladesh Belgium Brazil East Brazil West Canada Toronto Canada Pacific China Beijing Cuba Cyprus Denmark Egypt Ethiopia Finland France Germany Ghana Greece Hon Kong Hungary India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kenya Korea (Rep. of) Kuwait Lebanon Liberia Libya Luxemburg Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Mexico City Morocco Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria Norway Oman Pakistan Paraguay Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russia Moscow Russia Vladivostok Saudi Arabia Senegal Sierra Leone Singapore South Africa Spain Sudan Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Trinidad And Tobago Tunisia Turkey United Arab Emirates United Kingdom USA Washington USA San Francisco USA New York USA Hawaii Venezuela Yemen Zaire Kinshasa Zaire Katanga Zambia Zimbabwe STO
[Pacific Sighting] See Makkah Clock
Searching EsinIslam بحث موقع
Home | Explore | Broadcasters | Media | Donations | About Us | Contact | Fatwa | Our Sheikh
Save
President Hosts 68 Year-Old Man Who Promised To Walk To Malatya-to-Ankara If Islamist Gül Elected
12 August 2009
Turkish Islamist President Abdullah Gül has met with Malatya native Sami Karaaslan (68), who had been walking from Malatya to Ankara for days after promising in 2007 to do so if Gül were elected president. In 2007, presidential elections were held but Gül could not be elected after the Constitutional Court issued a historic ruling necessitating that at least 367 deputies be present in Parliament for the election to count. Early elections were then called and were held on July 22. It was then that Karaaslan promised to walk to Ankara. He finally set out on the walk from Malatya a little over a week ago, on July 30. After nine days of walking, he arrived in Pinarbasi, Kayseri province. “Say hi for us, too,” said people who met him. Learning about Karaaslan from national newspapers’ reports, President Gül ordered a car to bring Karaaslan to Ankara on Saturday. Karaaslan, however, rejected President Gül's offer, saying, “No, I will walk until the end.” Upon further insistence by the president, he accepted the offer and came to Ankara in a car belonging to the presidency. He met with President Gül last night. Gül hugged him and asked if there was anything he wanted. Karaaslan said he only wanted a photo with the president. Presidential candidacy Gül became acquainted with right-wing politics early during his high school years. During his university education, he became a member of the Islamist-nationalist Millî Türk Talebe Birligi (National Turkish Students' Union) in the line of Necip Fazil's Büyük Dogu (Grand Orient) current. During these years, Gül did not shy away from making his belief known despite several threats and plots by Turkish seculairsts and thier coup-addict army officers who saw statements the president made about the political system of Turkey that was designed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the Turkish National Movement as offensive. Fellow Islamist Party AKP leader, Prime Minister Erdogan announced on April 24, 2007 that Gül would be the Justice and Development Party candidate in the 2007 presidential election. Previously, there had been speculation that Erdogan himself would be the party's candidate, which had provoked substantial opposition from secularists. When a boycott of opposition parties in Parliament deadlocked the election process, Gül formally withdrew his candidacy on May 6, 2007. But a few days later, on May 11 when he inquired after the alterations to the Turkish constitution which now allowed the people to elect the president directly rather than a parliamentary vote, Gül announced that he was still intending to run. Following the July 2007 parliamentary election, the AKP renominated Gül as its presidential candidate on August 13; the election was again held as a vote of parliament. On August 14, Gül submitted his candidacy application to parliament and expressed his commitment to secularism at a news conference. On August 28, 2007, he was elected president in the third round of voting; in the first two rounds, a two-thirds majority of MPs had been required, but in the third round he needed only a simple majority. Gül was sworn in immediately thereafter. The process was a very low-key affair. Gül's swearing-in was not attended by the Chief of the Turkish General Staff and was boycotted by the opposition Republican People's Party; then the hand-over of power at the presidential palace was held behind closed doors. Gül's wife Hayrünnisa, whose wearing of a red headscarf is a factor in the opposition to Gül's presidency, was not present. This approach continued; the traditional evening reception hosted by the new president at the presidential palace for the countries highest authorities was announced for 11:30 in the morning and wives were not invited. Gül received messages of congratulation from the US, EU and German authorities while Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan made a statement saying "a structure doomed to uncertainty has been overcome" (an oblique reference to the deep state theory that Turkey is ruled behind-closed-doors by a secret conspiracy of soldiers and bureaucrats). The president’s ancestry or ethnicity according to a Çankaya Presidential Residence statement is "Turkish Muslim." Gül was also called with the name Cumhur by his family
EsinIslam.Com
Sign In Password