TURKEY - Aug 28 - Victory Of New Turkish President Breaks Grip Of Secularists.

A former Islamist is voted in as the new president of Turkey on Aug 28, breaking an 84-year grip on power by the secular establishment, and ushering a new Islamic middle class from Turkey's heartland into the center of the staunchly secular state. Lawmakers approved Abdullah Gul, a 56-year-old economist, with 339 votes, far above the simple majority required in the 550-member Parliament. Two other candidates garnered another 83 votes. The party of the secular establishment boycotted the voting. The vote ended months of political standoff that began when Turkey's secular establishment and military, virulently opposed to his candidacy, blocked it in May, forcing a national election last month. But Gul's party, Justice and Development, refused to back down, and his success Aug 28 marked a rare occasion in Turkish history in which a party prevailed against the powerful military. There was no immediate statement from the military, which has ousted four elected governments since 1960, but its unspoken reaction was frosty: None of Turkey's military commanders attended Gul's appointment ceremony, a highly unusual departure from protocol, considering that he is now their commander-in-chief. "This is definitely a day when we are turning a page, an important page, in the political history of the country", said Soli Ozel, a professor of international relations at Bilgi University in Istanbul. "The boundaries have been expanded in favor of civilian democracy". The appointment upsets the power hierarchy in Turkey, a secular democracy whose citizens are predominantly Muslims, by opening up the presidency - an elite secular post first occupied by this country's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - to a new class of leaders from Turkey's provinces, for decades considered backward by the elite. A decade ago, Gul's nomination would have been unthinkable: The elite and the military had kept the merchant class he comes from away from the center of power on the grounds that they were the protectors of Ataturk's legacy. Ali Murat Yel, chairman of the sociology department at Fatih University in Istanbul, said the selection of Gul was comparable in significance to an African-American being elected president in the United States. "It's a very important turning point", said Yel. "Those people who are the peasants and farmers and petty bourgeoisie always had republican values imposed on them. Now they are rising against it. They are saying, 'Hey, we are here, and we want our own way.' " Though Turkey's secular establishment has taken pains to portray Gul and his close ally, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish PM, as inseparable from their Islamic pasts, their supporters argue they have changed dramatically since the early 1990s, when they were members of the overtly Islamic Welfare Party. Yel said they had left radicalism and moved into the center. "They can sit on the same table as some people who drink alcohol and they drink their Coke, and they would be able to talk to them. They have come to terms with the reality of this country". Most Turks strongly oppose the idea of a religiously oriented government, and the overwhelming portion of Gul's constituency voted for his party because it had done well running the country, not because its leaders were pious men. Their policies over the past four years in power have reflected a careful respect for secular principles, many say. In his acceptance speech in Parliament on Aug 28, Gul emphasised his commitment to Turkish secular values. He renewed his pledge to push for Turkish membership in the EU, an effort he has led in four years as FM. "Secularism - one of the basic principles of our republic", he said, wearing a dark suit and a red tie. "My door will be open to everyone". His hometown, Kayseri, was decorated with Turkish flags, and a sound system was built in the city center to broadcast the ceremony and celebration, Turkish television said. Still, he will have to work to persuade skeptical Turks. "He has on his shoulders a very heavy burden - an Islamist past", said Baskin Oran, a political science professor. "He has to be twice as careful as a secular statesman". The election of Gul reopens the debate over where Islam fits in the building of an equitable society, a question that is also of central interest to Western democracies now. "We are in uncharted waters", said Ozel, the professor of international relations. "We don't know how they will run the country. This is not a party that has articulated its world view very clearly". "I think Turkey is truly becoming an example for the world to watch", he added. The US ambassador, Ross Wilson, welcomed Gul's appointment. "Once again, Turkey's commitment to democratic institutions and the rule of law has proven durable and strong", he said. Another apparent effect of the election has been to weaken the military's hold over politics, Turkish experts said. On Aug 27, Yasar Buyukanit, the chief of staff, said in a statement on the military Web site, that "centers of evil" were working to erode secularism. But the statement seemed tone deaf. "Quite frankly, unless the world goes totally upside down, I don't see how they could find a context in which they could legitimately intervene", Ozel said.