( Cihan ) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Justice and Development Party's (AKP) candidate for the president was Foreign Minster Abdullah Gul.
At the AKP Parliamentary Group meeting Erdogan said that all the researches pointed to only one name, and added that the parliament would decide on the president and that the decision of the parliament would be the decision of the whole nation.
The parliament would, Erdogan said, choose the president in accordance with the will of the nation and the principles of the founder of modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk .
At the end of his speech Erdogan said he prayed that the president, whoever the parliament chooses, would serve for the benefit of the country and the people.
On November 3, 2002, Gul was elected to the parliament as the deputy of Kayseri, a central Turkish province. He formed the 58th government, that was to be transitional, and took the post of prime minister. The goal was to make a constitutional amendment, in order to permit Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the chairman of the Justice AKP to become prime minister.
On March 14, 2003, Erdogan took over the post of prime minister from Abdullah Gьl and appointed him as his deputy prime minister and foreign minister.
As a foreign minister, Gul become the key player not only in Turkey's attempts to receive an accession date for the European Union, but also in its attempts to improve relations with Middle East and maintain good relations with the Turkish speaking countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus.