ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on Saturday appointed Abdullah Gul of the Justice and Development Party to form a government.
The Islamic-rooted party known by its Turkish initials -- AKP -- won a sweeping victory in the Nov. 3 general elections, but its leader Tayyip Erdogan couldn't become prime minister because he is not a member of Parliament.
On Friday, Erdogan sent the president three names as possible candidates for prime minister, and Sezer chose Gul.
Born in 1950, Gul was formerly an economics official at the Islamic Development Bank.
He entered politics in 1991 and served as minister of state in the coalition government formed by the now-banned Islamist Welfare Party in 1997.
Gul said he would submit his cabinet list to Sezer on Monday. The number of ministers will be cut to 23 from the current 35.
"Turkey's problems are big, but our party is prepared to fight" them, he told reporters in his first official statement.
"We are in an abnormal situation; it is the duty of all of us to normalize this situation," Gul said when asked if he would step down if Erdogan's ban was modified to allow him to serve.
Erdogan can't serve as an MP because he was convicted four years ago for Islamist sedition, or inciting religious hatred. Nevertheless, he is expected to be a political force behind Gul and is already being treated as such.
Next week, he is scheduled tour European capitals to lobby for Turkey's accession talks with the European Union. And while Gul was at the Presidential Palace on Saturday morning, Erdogan held a news conference to announce "an action plan" committing the next government to short- and mid-term economic programs.
These include a review of the stand-by agreement with the International Monetary Fund, faster privatization, a fairer distribution of the tax burden and better export funding.
The plan promises legal changes expand freedom of expression and religion in a "transparent government".
Gul, considered a moderate within the Islamic party, has -- after Erdogan -- the highest profile in the global financial markets and among multilateral bodies such as NATO and the EU.
Erdogan formed AKP last year, along with most of the members of the Welfare Party. But he has since sought to distance himself, saying that AKP represented the conservative democratic people of Turkey.
