Bump and Update:

Erdogan won the election. In a television interview today, he says he is not in a hurry for a re-vote and that the U.S. is to blame for the outcome of the last vote.

Erdogan said he wants assurances Turkey will be protected in a post-war Iraq. One of his aides said he doubts a vote will occur before March 19, two days after the U.S. deadline, unless the U.S. acts quickly to provide the assurances Turkey is seeking.

In the interview, Erdogan blamed the United States for rushing him to go to parliament last week before he had gathered enough support, and for alienating the Turkish public with statements that cast their resistance to the U.S. deployment as a bargaining ploy for more economic aid. Now, he said, the Bush administration would have to wait for these bad feelings to ease.

"I shouldn't give a definite date right now, but the U.S. has to take certain steps," he said. "As long as these steps are not taken, it is difficult for us to soften this climate in Turkey."

Erdogan named two issues he wanted the Bush administration to address. He asked for stronger guarantees that ethnic Turkmens in Iraq -- a population of 2 million to 3 million that Turkey says traces its roots to the same ancestors as the Turkish people -- would be fairly represented in a postwar Iraqi government. And he asked the United States to clarify what role Turkey would have in shaping Iraq's future, an apparent reference to Turkish concerns that an independent Kurdish state could be established in northern Iraq.

The Turkish government believes that a Kurdish state would encourage Turkey's own Kurdish population to make similar demands for autonomy, and perhaps lead to a renewal of the fighting between Kurdish separatists and the Turkish military that battered the nation for much of the past two decades.

"We talk about a political approach, so what will Turkey's role be in the end? If Turkey will not have any role, why is it sharing such a risk? This is not clear. It has to be clarified," Erdogan said.

Original Post--3/9/03 9:00 am The polls are closed in Turkey and counting of the votes has begun. It is expected that Recep Tayyip Erdogan will become the Turkish Prime Minister.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been the main power behind the scenes since his Islamic-rooted party formed a government after November elections, but he was barred from political office until a recent constitutional change. Erdogan is running for a seat in parliament in the southeastern province of Siirt. If he wins, he is expected to replace Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and form a new Cabinet within days - possibly removing ministers who have opposed the U.S. deployment."

Our prior post on Turkey and what our Turkish-American friends have told us is here.