Army, protests may hurt Turkey's AK Party at ballot

By Paul de Bendern

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Powerful generals and secularist demonstrators are seeking to set limits to the powers of Turkey's Islamist-rooted government, but there appears little appetite for the coups that marked the country's troubled past.

The General Staff made it clear on Friday it disapproved of the candidature of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul for the presidency -- seen by many as the last political check to the ruling AK Party's power. The government hit back with an unprecedented public rebuke to the "Pashas".

Turkey's powerful military has intervened four times since 1960. In 1997 it helped push out a government it deemed an Islamist threat. Gul, was a member of the 1997 government.

"I don't think they can do it. Those days are gone, but that doesn't mean they won't do it," said Semih Idiz, a veteran columnist at liberal daily Milliyet.

Many secularists fear capture of the presidency by AK, created from the ruins of the party ousted in 1997, will weaken the secular state. The president has some powers to veto legislation, influence official appointments and, more sensitive still, is formally commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

AK itself denies any Islamist ambitions and portrays itself as a centrist party free of the corruption that blighted parties swept from office when it won elections overwhelmingly in 2002.

"Many of us are fed up with this government because of its failure to take into account the importance of secularism in people's lives. The AK Party has done some good economic reforms but they fail to be conciliatory and that's because they are Islamists at heart," said student Emre Alpev at Sunday's rally.

Under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has made great strides, achieving the start of European Union accession talks and posting strong economic growth after years of weak coalition governments and chronic economic instability and corruption.