Dr David Green's so called assessments sound more 'like an exercise in historical revisionism of the worst kind .I would like to know if the Dr is a paid up member of the anti-Turkish league based in Athens. Kemak Ataturk stands alone as an inspirational leader who united and led his country to victory in a war of liberation from the invading forces from Greece and its western allies including Britain, France, Italy and others. What sticks in the throat of people like Dr Green is that he achieved this feat with the remnants of a defeated army and a war torn nation.The doctors fictitious claims such as the Kemalist armies carrying out slaughters against Jews is a total fabrication. Ataturk was a secularisr, and an atheist who sought to create a modern, western looking country.The republic and the pillars on which it was created reflect the genius and the vision of the man. Dr Green also chooses to make one sided assertions about Cyprus, a war started by the right wing junta in Athens.

Huseyin Huseyin, London, United Kingdom

Dearie me, Brownwyn. I mean are Europe's "Christian Democrats" a blow for secularism too? I know it's very chic to spell doom and gloom about Turkey, but these guys are nothing more than Muslim Democrats and Gul's party has been the best and most stable government that Turkey has hand for a long time. The extreme secularists are in fact the dangerous ones as they elevated Ataturk to the status of a god and got the economy into mess after mess. I think it is time you thought of something more original to say about the evolution of islamist parties realising that democracy is here to stay and abandoning religious dogma for freedom of the individual and free markets.

Sameh El-Shahat, Londonq, UK

This is the western liberal reading, one that regards religion as irrelevant. It is probably more true that the AK party attracts the Anatolian dirt poor because of its Islamic credentials. The more plausible thesis about Gul is that he is using democracy to gain an Islamic political state, the natural condition for a Muslim nation like Turkey, only the army has prevented that. And Gul is keen to get Turkey into the EU for religious reasons: the mass migration of millions of poor hard line Muslims into Europe by right will hasten the Islamisation agenda, already going so well.
Very worrying indeed - only the French seem to realise what is going on deep down.

Blackstone, Abingdon, UK

Ataturk was one of the finest anti-colonialists and secularists ever. Personal belief must not affect politics.

Ben, York,

Just a reminder. Turkey did not invade Cypruss. The British army did not come to N.Irland to suppress the Catholics. The Turkish Army came to the rescue of the Turkish minority in Cypruss from the Greeks who were determined to massacre the Turks the same way as the Turks tried to exterminate the Armenians during the 1st WW. The British Army came into N. Irland to defend the Catholics against the Protestants. These facts have to be repeated again and again. And yes, the Kurds should have their own country. There are 20 millions of them. Why were they forgotten during the great carve up of the Middle East in 1919. And the Basks? Let the Scots go, I say, but the sensible Welsh with their very much alive language should stay with the English. There are of course the Hungarians in Transylvania, Slovakia and Serbia (Vojvodina) but cares about them?

Peter Kaldor, Woking, Surrey

Islam needs to evolve, not by much, but it must evolve to be able to continue as a long term force for good on this planet. There are three things that would take almost all the heat out of the debate.
1 - Islam must recognise that everyone has a right to their own beliefs, regardless of their acceptance of the existance of something called "God".
2 - Islam must accept that encouraging anyone to believe that murder, killing another, because they do not believe in something called "God" is a totally unacceptable practise in any civilised society. Murder for any reason must be seen as a crime against civilisation and must be stopped.
3 - Islam must grant recognition to women of rights enjoyed in any other civilised society. Islam's treatment of women is totally unacceptable in any civilised society.
Abdullah Gül has a great responsibility and an associated opportunity to provide leadership to Islam to end uncivilised practices throughout the Islamic world. He should do that.

Chris Coles, Medstead, Alton, United Kingdom

What is the vision of Ataturk? A repressive system that culminated in human rights abuses and squeezing all minority groups to practice their culture. Or is it 'I am happy to be a Turk. ' What will deliver change to Turkey is their passage to become a member of European union, this will influence their way to treat others.

h marph, LONDON,

I hope that Gul's presidency will not steer Turkey towards Fundamenal Islam.More Islam means less peace and love.Unfortunately the Army does not support other religions to even the balance.Turks should not condone the disturbing life styles seen in Saudi a.,Malaysia,Iran,Libya etc..

Aydin Akuz, Izmir, Turkey

Ms Maddox concludes her piece stating that Mr Gul represents "the desire of many ordinary Turks to have more of a voice in politics and in the country’s institutions than they have done."
Isn't this what democracy is all about? Or should Turkey, or any other country for that matter, be ruled by "elites" (who selects the elites is always a question left unanswered). Turkey has made enormous progress under the AKP government (viz the abolition of the death penalty) and it is time that the army and many "western" observers realise that in a democracy the army is subject to the democratically-elected executive and not viceversa.

Giancarlo Perasso, Sevenoaks,

I think that this will advance Turkish accession to the EU which will occur sooner now that Turkey has taken a major step in reconciling Islam and democracy. Geoff is incorrect; Turkish Islamists have always protected minorities in Turkey. These minorities still enjoy great opportunities and success within Turkey unlike say Muslims in Europe or Britain. And as far as repression of Kurds on this front Turkey has also made great strides. Kurds are fully integrated into Turkish society; we have had a Kurdish prime minister and over 20 independent Kurdish MP's were elected to parliement in the last election.There are also many Kurds within the ranks of the AKP. Cyprus continues to be a vexing issue but the Turkish side has always been willing to compromise; it is Greek stubbornness which has led to the current division. As far as the Armenian issue resolution will only come when both sides admit to past errors; the Armenians for mass slaughter of Muslims and Turks for the deportations

baran, Dallas , Texas

The problem is that Turkey is so deeply divided between people whose identity is predominantly Muslim and the securlarists, the heirs of Ataturk. The latter set out on a firm policy of secularization and modernization, disgusted with the former men-in-power who foolishly picked the loosers in WW I and proved themselves powerless not only to retain the Arab colonies, but even to defend the Turkish homeland. It was shock therapy, and today Turkey has still not recovered from this shock. There is only one way forward for Turkey: to continue to develop into a modern democratic state with freedom of religion ans respect for minorities firmly established. I sincerely hope that mr. Gul will be able to bridge the gap between the secularistists and those who consider themselves Muslims on the first place. He certainly would be a second Ataturk then.

Hein Maassen, Leidschendam, The Netherlands

I agree entirely with Ms Maddox's assessment of the current situation in Turkey. Viewed from Athens, where a more objective assessment of Turkey's future will have to wait until Greece becomes less of a fiery furnace, President Gul's election will be seen as a vital break with Turkey's Kemalist past. Kemal Attaturk was born in Thessalonica in Greece, but his army was responsible for some horrific slaughters of Greeks, Armenians and Jews. In 1974 the Turkish army was also responsible for heinous crimes in Cyprus. I have always regarded Attaturk as an anachronism and see Gul's election as a return to Turkey's Ottoman roots. That said, I remain one of the NYNE's (Not Yet Not Ever) in relation to Turkey's accession to the EU and agree in large part with President Sarkozy's assessment of the situation. Turkey's destiny lies in the East not the West although its trade links with the West will be strengthened. If the British government wishes Turkey in the EU then it must pay up, yet again!

Dr David Green, Athens, Greece

John Alexander and Geoff M Josselin obviously have no clue on what they are saying! Firstly Turkey doesnt have a Kurdish problem it has a terrorism problem but because Terrorism is classified differently for Non EU and American countries the PKK are considered to be a freedom fighting group, absolutely sickening. Secondly Turkey has offered Armenia joint collaberation in researching the Armenia attrocity to finalise what happened in history, this was rejected - if there was such a genocide then it would have been documented and the truth would have come out! When the Greek Cypriots started to massacre the Turkish Cypriots Turkey intervened to save them and until their safety is guaranteed then Turkey will not leave and rightly so! Also it was the Greek Cypriots that rejected the unification of the Island - Lets not forget that. (Even the EU is regreting accepting the greek cypriots now that they realised that they are the reason behind non-unification)

Taner, London, England

Gul's election as president is not a victory but a threat to democracy. Not only his party represents no more than 39% of all voters, but also democracy can not exist without secularity.

Ali Akademir, Herts,

what i dont understand is why the times refused to publish any of my comments

Sameh , london, uk

Democracy has arrived in Turkey, I hope we will accept the democratic views of the people.

Same thing happened in Algeria people voted using their democratic rights but west intervene as usual and now they have military dictator. I hope this will not happen again and west accept the democratic decision of the people.
Democracy is by the people, for the people .... etc etc as I heard since my child hood.

Raheel Khan, Toronto , Canada

What i find strange is, & i don't mind Gul being president with a veiled wife, he was rejected more than twice but the party still pushed ahead with his nomination. Now if he was accepted the first time, then its really the will of the people & their representatives, but that wasnt the case, i feel he was imposed on the position & someone budged in so not to cause more rift.
Question is, will Gul be president for all turks or will he impose islamist rules on the people? will he undermine the secular structure to allow more so called islamic power or will he be neutral?

S. Ahmed, Cairo,

John, get a life - Cyprus, Armenians... yeah, yeah. It bothers everyone when Muslims hit back at Christians whilst you all turned a blind eye to Greek atrocities in Cyprus before the Turkish intervention or that Christian Armenians sided with the invading Russians and their consequent ethnic cleansing was a result of at least some Armenians opportunistic misadventure. Such venom against Turkey and Turks in popular western press makes Turks ever more nationalistic...

Kurt, London, UK

I am interested in hearing what Ms Maddox has to say about the situation that both prime minister's and president's wives are not allowed to be part of any official ceremonies in Turkey simply because they both cover their hair. Do their rights as women to follow the way understand their religious teachings are not violated here? Why this reticence about the rights of those two wonderful, dignified women who serve their country earnestly? Please be objective, even when writing about Islam and Muslim issues.

Abdel, Kuwait, Kuwait

Turkey will never be a european country, and the blame for that lies partly with western europe.
What Turkey will be, in a few years time, is the most powerful islamist republic in the world, with a modern, fantastically supplied, historically fearsome army. The janisaries are back, and europe is still quibling, might as well be the 14th century again.

JC, London,

mr gul has been elected by akp party.most of turks dosent lıke hım .becouse mr gul ıs not showıng hıs true clour.if mr gul has black colour,if he try to change somethıng ın secular state he wıll be punıshment by public or powerfull turkısh amry.ı want to say somethınk to mr jonh alexander,turks never wihtdraw in cyprus,turk never accept armenian lias......

murat kaya, istanbul, turkey

Ms Maddox seems to suffer from the misunderstanding that is so frighteningly commonplace in Europe - that merely following the wishes of the majority constitutes democracy. This is a dangerously simplistic notion. Democracy requires protections that prevent the majority choosing to simply abolish democracy, or crush minorities. Attaturk recognised this. The US Bill of Rights recognizes this. So much of Europe does not.

Political Islam is a threat to human rights everywhere. The fact that some communities have a majority who don't care does not make this acceptable.

Nick, Rotherham, UK

Electing Gul as a president Turks don't want Ataturks idealsm anymore.
Ataturk was wrong at first place to force the Turks to be secular,if Turks want to be secular they will choose the secularism as they choose the muslim president with wife wearing head scarf that majority of the Turkish women wears them anyway.
What is the secularsm anyway? Seperate the religiun from politics,thats fine, Gul is a muslim man is he supposed to give up his religiun inorder to be a President?
Army has only one agenda to keep theyr job and pretend that keeping Ataturks vision that does not work anymore.
Generals in panic that they will loose the power.
Gul is a fine man religius man and secular man as well. He is democratically elected so where is the problem?
Problem is there is a loop whole in Ataturks vission of secularsm and generals did not exspected this loop whole.

Halit , shah alam , malaysia

turkey. We dont know we guess, we use information not proven facts,we see the tip of acountry that the west has vested interest. Europe has made it clear Turkey is an unwanted guest to a christian club. Military dictatorship or seculiar state thats all we hear from turkey.The noises we hear from the military indicates a more senior boss than the wishes of the people.

michael joseph heavey, cahersiveen/adams town, madness

There can be no such thing as a democratic Islamist state.

Dont kid yourselves. Ask the minorities that still survive in Turkey - the remnants of the Pontic Greek, Armenian and Assyrian Christians wiped out by Turkish Islamists.

Geoff M, Josselin, France

The Islamist calculation is that maybe we can get away with introducing more religion into Turkish society, so long as we keep out of the way of the military when it comes to the Kurds, the occupation of Cyprus and the Armenian genocide. Problem is, if Turkey doesn’t end its repression of the Kurds, withdraw its troops from Cyprus and continues to deny the Armenian genocide, then the country’s EU accession will grind to a halt. If this happens, reforms and liberalisation will lose their impetus and Turkey will sink back into being semi-democratic, authoritarian and hypernationalist, which will suit the military and the secular deep state but not the Islamists.

john alexander, London, UK