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Passionate public demonstrations have been held in Turkey recently against Prime Minister Erdogan's selection of Abdullah Gul to run for the republic's presidency. These thousands of demonstrators were Istanbul's secularists, who rear the creeping Islamism of Erdogan's government. Gul's wife wears the Islamic head scarf as a sign of her piety — a silly issue in Western eyes, but to the secularists, the head scarf is a red flag. Their freedoms, guaranteed since 1923, when the secular republic was created, are being challenged by resurgent Islam. The courts backed the demonstrators, as did the Turkish military, which has been a guarantor of a secular Turkey since the republic was created. Mr. Gul will not run.
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