By Xinhua
Ankara : Turkey’s newly-elected President Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday that he would embrace all Turkish citizens without discrimination.
“I will maintain my impartiality and do everything in my power to ensure harmony among state organs,” Gul said in a speech after he was sworn in as president at the Parliamentary General Assembly.
“The Republic of Turkey is a democratic, secular and social state of law. I will be determined to defend and fortify all these principles without any discrimination,” Gul said.
The president, a controversial figure with an Islamist background, praised secularism in his speech, saying that the easiest way to eliminate clashes and disputes in a society is commitment to the principle of secularism.
“Secularism, one of the basic principles of the Republic, is a social peace role as well as a model that liberalizes different living styles in a democratic life which is a system of rights and liberties,” he underlined.
Earlier on Tuesday, Gul, candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), was elected as new president with 339 votes in the third round of presidential voting which requires a simple majority of 276 votes.
Gul continued, “We are undergoing a period in which we have the opportunity to show not only ourselves but also the entire world how mature our democracy is.”
“We have to work together to strengthen Turkey, and the goal of Great Leader Ataturk, the Founder of the Republic, to ‘bring Turkey over the level of contemporary civilizations’ should always be in our minds,” he emphasized.
Turning to freedoms of expression and religion, Gul said, “Being a transparent community is a must for development of the countries and happiness of the people. Freedom of expression and freedoms of religion and conscience are the guarantees for our people to have a honorable life.”
He noted that “our differences and diversities will be our treasure. If we can see this fact, we will be able to boost unity and order.”
“The state exists in order to secure tranquility, prosperity and security of the people,” he underlined.
In the third round of voting, the candidate from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Sabahattin Caknakoglu, collected70 votes while the third candidate, Tayfun Icli from the Democratic Left Party (DSP), got 13 votes.
While the first and second rounds of voting require 367 votes –two thirds of the 550-seat parliament — to elect the new president, in the third round held on Tuesday, a simple majority of 276 votes would be sufficient.
Gul’s first bid for the presidency failed in May after the parliament’s general assembly failed to reach a quorum of 367 voters needed to elect a new president due to the opposition boycott, prompting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to call an early parliamentary election.