Gül’s Presidency: The beginning of an end

"Our candidate is my fellow Abdullah Gül, with whom we founded this movement and have walked along same the path so far." On April 24, 2007, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced his party's presidential candidate with those ardent words at a group meeting. This was actually a concession since, even during those days, the intense hate felt by the opponents towards the "new Turkey" crystalized in Erdoğan's persona began to become more and more evident. And a mass reaction was endeavored to trigger the prevention of Erdoğan's presidency.

However, the calls for reaction did not work. Gül was also a student of Necip Fazıl and the National Vision Movement (MGT). More importantly, his wife wore the hijab. When Gül's candidacy was officially finalized, the republican meetings were ongoing with utmost speed, the propaganda claiming that a "religious law order" was impending became widespread, and anonymous highly-ranking military officers had to speak to newspapers. With the announcement of his candidacy, opposition groups expedited their activities.

As can be remembered, though there were 357 affirmative votes in the first round of the presidential election held on April 27, 2007, the Republican People's Party (CHP) rendered the election to the Constitutional Court on the grounds that the meeting did not meet enough participation.

On the night of those events, the General Staff released a memorandum on its website, which is one of the dishonor documents of the institution. As the Constitutional Court accepted the CHP's objection, the first round of voting was cancelled. The presidential election was turned into a regime crisis by a group of losers to the regime.

The government replied to the act by answering the General Staff with a counter-declaration that pointed out that the General Staff is under the command of the government, and called for an early election, making the public the ultimate decision-makers. The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) increased its votes from 34 percent to 47 percent. Gül was nominated again, and became the 11th president of Turkey.

During his term in office, Gül worked in accordance with the government and the ideal of "new Turkey." All the laws including the ones regarding Kurdish peace, democratization reforms, non-Muslim rights, and changes to end military domination entered into force thanks to his approval. He embraced Kurdish peace by stating, "good things will happen." He paid a visit to Armenia for the first time, and created official reports by activating the State Supervision Board regarding the dark issues of Turkey such as Hrant Dink's assassination and the Sivas incidents.

The presidential palace, which had always remained distant to the public before, was opened to public in his term. In the presidential palace, where the Internet was cut after work hours during 10th president Ahmet Necdet Sezer's tenure, the Twitter account with the most followers in Turkey was created. A smiling and gracious president replaced the former president Sezer, whom we cannot remember smiling even once.

Gül's presidency was a precursor of the collapsing "ancient regime." The new page that opened with Erdoğan's presidency will be written in a new Turkey where the statist and radical nationalist era, and the military and civilian domination on politics come to an end.