A religious Turk vaults to power

Abdullah Gul bounds into each shop on a main drag of this central Turkish city, extending a hearty handshake, a pearly smile, and the greeting of politicians everywhere.

"How are you doing?" he asks cheerily. "Not so great," is a common reply. In a country in its deepest economic slump since 1945, few businessmen in the heartland are as ebullient as Mr. Gul.

"Hold on ... things are going to change soon," vows Gul, who many here expect will be the next prime minister.

Early returns Sunday show that Gul's Justice and Development Party, or AK Party had 34 percent of the vote, and enough seats in parliament to form a government without coalition partners.

As a result, Turkey will see the ascension of an untested political party with an Islamist pedigree at a moment in history when US military intervention in neighboring Iraq and entrance to the European Union loom as large as the imposing 6th century Byzantine fortress walls over Kayseri, Gul's hometown.

Gul's AK Party's roots in two banned Islamic political parties has had Turkey's secular establishment concerned enough to bar AK's controversial chairman and founder, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, from standing as a candidate for parliament. That puts Gul, one of the party's cofounders as one of the most likely men to become prime minister.

It could take days or weeks for a new government to jell. But initial returns show that AK took more than 30 percent of the vote – a feat in an election with 18 political parties.

Gul, who holds a PhD in economics, speaks fluent English, and is known for putting a moderate face on the Islamically oriented political camp. "An AK Party government will contribute to world peace," Gul said in an interview on Thursday. "We can prove that a country with a Muslim identity can be transparent, can be democratic, can be comfortable in the world." He summed up the secret to their success: "We have the grass roots. We are friendly with the people. We are not elitists."

Indeed, Gul's modest beginnings are here, in this city of about 1 million known mostly for its business sense and spicy sausages. Gul's mother taught, and his father still operates a factory that produces small electrical items.

But Gul, an eldest son, had bigger plans in mind. When he was in high school, one of his closest friends recalls, he helped form a literary circle. "I was appointed to read the Russian classics and Abdullah Gul was appointed to read French classics," says Bekir Yildiz, the mayor of Kocasinan, one of the three municipalities that make up Kayseri. They also read Turkish writers – from Islamist to left-wingers – as well as a host of Persian and Arabic philosophers.

They were teenage boys thirsty for news from the outside world – and who, until they set off for Istanbul University in 1968, had never seen a television set or known anyone who left Turkey.

"We were determined to know both East and West. We were curious about the world," Mr. Yildiz explains. "I can't say we were the brightest or first in school. But the history teachers were fed up with us because we knew too much and were asking too many questions."

Reaching into his desk, Yildiz pulls out faded black-and-white photographs of Gul, himself, and other young men, their hair in early-Beatles cuts, alongside banners of the National Turkish Student Union, a group they founded once they got to university.

Erdogan, who was about five years younger, was also part of their crowd. "We were between the revolutionaries and the nationalists," Yildiz says. "In those days, the winds of change were about and we wanted to gain knowledge so we could do something for the country."

That's why, he says, when Gul entered politics nearly 20 years later, first running for Parliament in 1991, old friends flocked to his side. "We knew that he would have the cure and the solution for Turkey."

But Turks who are mistrustful of the AK Party's agenda say the party purposefully downplays its Islamist agenda. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, whose party is about to disappear from power, warned as much last week. One Ankara newspaper columnist friendly with Gul says Gul and those around him have leaned toward Islamist politics for over 30 years, and aren't about to change.

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