Gul elected as Turkey's president

(CNN) -- Former Islamist Abdullah Gul has been elected president of Turkey following a contest that has split the nation and drawn opposition from the army.

Gul, the country's current foreign minister, won the third round vote Tuesday at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, backed by 339 out of the 448 lawmakers who attended the session.

He was expected to take over from current incumbent President Ahmet Necdet Sezer later on Tuesday in a ceremony barred to the media, The Associated Press reported.

The election has stoked divisions between supporters of Gul, a former Islamist who is backed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Turkey's traditionally secular political establishment.

On Monday Turkey's top military chief warned that the division between religion and the state was being threatened by "centers of evil."

"Our nation has been watching the behavior of those separatists who can't embrace Turkey's unitary nature, and centers of evil that systematically try to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic," said General Yasar Buyukanit in a note, posted on the military's Web site.

The military is distrustful of Gul, who served as minister in a banned Islamist party in 1997. It regards itself as the upholder of secularism, on which the state is built, and has overthrown four governments since 1960, the last 10 years ago.

In two rounds of voting last week Gul failed to win the presidency as his candidacy could not secure the necessary two-thirds parliamentary majority.

Gul, regarded as modernizer who has been key to Turkey's negotiations with the European Union about entry, has been conciliatory towards his critics, vowing to maintain the traditions of secularism on which modern Turkey is built.

But his path to the presidential palace has been surrounded by controversy. Critics have cited how his wife is often seen in an Islamic-style head scarf -- forbidden in state buildings and educational establishments -- although Reuters reported a KONDA/Milliyet as finding that most Turks considered it "normal" for the First Lady to wear the attire.

Thousands of opponents staged demonstrations when Gul's candidacy was announced in April, while secular opposition parties withdrew from the election.

That forced Gul to temporarily quit his campaign and Erdogan to call early elections in July, which AKP won with 47 percent of the vote -- despite noises from the military.

Gul re-entered the race following the poll, claiming, according to AP, that "it was a vote on my candidacy."

Before today's result, analysts predicted that Gul presidency would be one of conciliation, especially given the recent turmoil.

Academic and Middle East expert Cengiz Candar told Reuters: "One of the striking qualities is that he will be affectionate to the public. It'll open the presidential palace to the people. It was too much of an isolated place in the last seven years." E-mail to a friend

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