Turkey's new parliament sworn in

ANKARA-Turkey's new parliament was sworn in on Saturday with the Islamist-rooted ruling party keeping its majority after elections last month and pro-Kurdish deputies joining for the first time in 16 years.The first big issue facing the parliament is choosing a new president and Turkey's secular establishment fears the AK party will now try to force through its own candidate. Elections were brought forward after the army blocked AK Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's choice of an ex-Islamist ally-Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul-for president.AK won 349 seats out of 549 and Mr. Erdogan is expected to return as prime minister.
"Abdullah Gul will probably continue his candidacy.Politics cannot play out without regard to the people's will," said Salih Kapusuz,head of the AK parliamentary group.Mr. Gul's past and the fact that his wife wears a Muslim head scarf jar on some in the mostly Muslim but secular country,which hopes to win membership of the EU.Army chief Yasar Buyukanit has said the next president should be secular in name and in deed.The military views itself as the ultimate guarantor of the secular order and ousted an Islamist-minded cabinet in 1997.Members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) took their parliamentary oaths in the Turkish language-a break with the past,when pro-Kurdish parties were removed for insisting on using their own language.More than 30,000 people have been killed since Kurdish guerrillas launched an armed campaign in 1984 for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey.The pro-Kurdish deputies say they seek reconciliation,but their party is distrusted by many Turks,who believe it is just a mouthpiece of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),classed as terrorists by Turkey and its Western allies.The DTP holds 20 seats in parliament."The Kurds don't want a state,they want democracy,"DTP deputy Sirri Sakik told Reuters in an interview this week.
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