The struggle over the political identity of Turkey intensified last night after the military voiced its grave concern over the prospect of the country being led for the first time by a president with an Islamist past.

Soon after the secular Opposition went to court in an attempt to stop the election of Abdullah Gul as president, the Army gave warning that it would not stand by while modern Turkey’s secularist foundations were being undermined.

“The Turkish Armed Forces have been monitoring the situation with concern,” the state-run Anatolia agency quoted the military as saying. “It should not be forgotten that the Turkish Armed Forces is one of the sides in this debate and the absolute defender of secularism.”

The appointment of Mr Gul, if he were elected, would be a symbolic victory over the staunchly secularist elite that runs the country and traditionally controls the office of head of state. He would be the first incumbent with a wife who covers her head in the traditional Islamic manner.

The headscarf is banned in public offices, parliament and universities in Turkey under rules much harsher than in most of Christian Europe.

The outgoing President, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, would not invite Mrs Gul and other covered women married to MPs of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK) to his receptions out of principle.

The Opposition’s legal challenge and the subsequent warning from the military were triggered by balloting in parliament earlier yesterday, when Mr Gul failed to get enough votes in the first round. He won 357 of the 361 votes cast, insufficient for an outright win. Opposition parties mostly boycotted the poll.

A second vote is set for May 2. If Mr Gul fails to win a two-thirds majority there he should comfortably get the required simple majority in the third round unless the constitutional court overturns the process. His party is confident that the legal challenge will fail.

“We got more votes than we expected,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister, said. “I believe we can find 367 in the second round.”

However, the military — which has staged three coups since 1960 on the pretext of preserving the secular state founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk — threatens again to have the final word. “When necessary, it will display its attitudes and actions very clearly. No one should doubt that,” the army statement said.

In the balance is not only the fate of Mr Gul but also the political stability that Turkey has enjoyed since AK became the first one-party Government in more than a decade and implemented widespread social and economic reform.

The argument over the presidency has been brewing since rumours first emerged that the Prime Minister, a former Islamist firebrand who was imprisoned for sedition, would seek the post.

After a large public protest in Ankara — expected to be repeated this weekend in Istanbul — stern statements from Mr Sezer and the chief of staff and concern that his party would suffer if he left the leadership, Mr Erdogan nominated the more conciliatory Mr Gul as a compromise candidate. This was still regarded as a defiant gesture by his opponents as he overlooked other candidates with more conventional pasts.

Mr Erdogan and Mr Gul held senior positions in now-banned Islamist parties.

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