New rally for Turkish secularism

The crowds in Samsun were smaller than in other protests

Tens of thousands of Turks have massed in the city of Samsun in the latest demonstration in support of secularism.

The crowds waved national flags and chanted slogans opposing any change to Turkey's secular political model.

The protest in Samsun, a port on the Black Sea, followed huge rallies in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

Turkey's ruling, Islamist-rooted AK Party has called early elections to end a political stand-off sparked by its nomination of a presidential candidate.

The election, now due to be held on 22 July, was brought forward from November.

Demonstrators say the AK Party has an Islamist agenda to undermine the secular nature of the Turkish republic.

'No coups'

Police estimated that about 50,000 people attended the rally, Reuters news agency reported.

Last weekend about one million people filled the seafront in the port of Izmir.

Many of those in Samsun carried pictures of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey and the key icon of state secularism.

Samsun was the place where Ataturk launched the country's war of independence against ruling powers after the end of World War I.

Organiser Turkan Saylan told the crowds that they were in Samsun "to cry out loud that we are against Shariat [Islamic law]".

"And we are against military coups," she added, referring to a threat by the country's military to intervene in favour of the secular system

Presidency problem

The leaders of two of Turkey's main opposition parties, the Republican People's Party (CHP) and Democratic Left Party (DSP), shared a platform at the Samsun rally.

The two parties have joined forces in an effort to counter the AK Party in the forthcoming elections.

The current crisis was sparked by the AK Party's attempts to nominate Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to the presidency.

Opposition parties claimed the installation of a man with an Islamist political past would undermine secularism, and blocked attempts to confirm him in the Turkish parliament.

The government eventually withdrew Mr Gul's nomination and called early elections.

Despite the mass rallies across Turkey, correspondents and opinion polls indicate that the AK Party still remains the country's most popular.