Gul could announce candidacy for presidency

ISTANBUL, July 25 (KUNA) -- Turkey's Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gul, will be making and announcing his decision on running for the presidential elections around noon Wednesday.
This comes days after his party, the Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish initials AK, won the majority in Sunday's elections.
In April, the AK's decision to nominate Gul for the candidacy resulted in a political crisis as the powerful secular army generals objected citing Gul's religious background.
The Turkish Prime Minister called for early parliamentary elections which were held last Sunday. The results gave the AK party, a right-centrist party, 47 percent of the total votes, or around 340 seats in the 550-seat parliament.
Though his term ended last May, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer remained in the post after parliament failed to secure a nominee to take his place.
The new parliament must elect a president within the next week.
Secular Turks have objected to Gul's nomination, as they considered his wife's hijab, the Muslim headscarf, a challenge to Turkey's founding principle of secularism.(end) ta.go KUNA 251146 Jul 07NNNN