Unrest feared as Gul signals fresh Turkish presidency bid

FOREIGN Minister Abdullah Gul yesterday said he might make a fresh bid for Turkey’s presidency, in comments sure to stir unease in the country’s powerful secular establishment.

The secularists, including army generals, blocked Mr Gul’s first attempt to be elected head of state in May, forcing Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to call an early parliamentary election. His Islamist-rooted AK Party decisively won that poll on Sunday.

“Nobody can place a political ban on others. It is out of the question that I should rule myself out as a candidate (for the presidency),” Mr Gul told a news conference.