Turkey Tilts Toward Islam, but Just a Bit; Wildfires Prove to Be a Greek Tragedy; Paying a Price for Hostages' Freedom; Out of One Prison and Into Another; A Bit of Italy and a Bit of Vegas in Asia
Turkey Tilts Toward Islam, but Just a Bit
Months of political jostling and Muslim-secularist tensions in Turkey played out last week with the anticipated result: the election of a moderate Islamist, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, as Turkey's 11th president. Gul immediately sought to reassure the strongly secular military that he would respect the country's tradition as a secular democracy with its separation of religion and state. To that end, he named a cabinet that mixes religiously oriented and secular figures. To take his place as foreign minister, Gul named Ali Babacan, 40, a former economics minister with a business degree from Northwestern University.
The recent resounding parliamentary election victory by Gul's Islamic-leaning Justice and Development Party provides him with some protection against an earlier-feared intervention by the military, which regards itself as the guarantor of Turkey's secular identity and has acted to oust four governments since 1960. The Turkish press, though, took note of the fact that the senior military generals did not attend Gul's swearing-in ceremony in Parliament.
What may now be key is whether the secularist Republican People's Party—seen by many Turks as dominated by a self-serving elite—will be able to regroup after its parliamentary defeat to act as a credible opposition party so that Turkey can work out its secular-religious tensions without the military stepping in.
Wildfires Prove to Be a Greek Tragedy
By week's end, the devastating wildfires that raged across Greece were mostly extinguished. But public discontent was smoldering over what many regarded as the government's mishandling of the crisis that left at least 64 people dead, destroyed some 1,500 homes, and caused an estimated $1.6 billion in property damage.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, heading into parliamentary elections September 16, promised to rebuild all destroyed homes and provide disaster aid. Polls showed his center-right New Democracy Party in a statistical tie with the opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement, known as Pasok, which has strongly attacked the government's response to the fires. But the polls also showed the public favors Karamanlis remaining in office.
Paying a Price for Hostages' Freedom
Taliban militants last week released 19 Christian missionary aid workers from South Korea, ending a six-week hostage drama in Afghanistan. Two other hostages were killed early in the ordeal, and two women had previously been freed. The Taliban claimed a "great victory" after the South Korean government held negotiations with militants despite objections from the weak Afghan government. The South Korean government committed to go ahead with a previously planned withdrawal of its 200 troops by year-end and to bar future missionary trips to Afghanistan. Afghan officials said that despite denials, South Korea also paid a ransom.
Out of One Prison and Into Another
Federal inmate No. 38699-079, aka former Panama dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega, is due to be paroled from federal prison in Miami this month after serving 17½ years of an original 40-year sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering. He's getting out early for good behavior. But his hopes to return to his Central American homeland were dashed last week by a U.S. judge who ruled that he could be extradited to France, where he faces 10 years in prison on a drug conviction. While Noriega would also have faced criminal charges in Panama, the chances are the outcome there, where the judiciary is still regarded as weakened by corruption, would have been more lenient and he might have been entitled to serve any sentence under home detention.
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