Turkish Parliament Picks Demirel as 9th President : Election: Premier was twice deposed by military coups. He vows to make nation more democratic.

ISTANBUL, Turkey —  Veteran Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel was elected Turkey’s ninth president Sunday, vowing to lead the country along much the same free-market, more-democratic route charted by his predecessor, the late Turgut Ozal.

In Turkey, Parliament elects the president, a post that theoretically rides above day-to-day government but has potentially significant powers.

Demirel, 68, a conservative, won 244 votes in the 450-seat National Assembly. Three other candidates put up by leftist, rightist and pro-Islamic parties did not come close to challenging him.

“This is a victory for democracy,” a delighted Demirel announced on national television as deputies surged forward to kiss his hands in the capital, Ankara.

Demirel’s rise has been remarkable. Born to a peasant family, he trained as an engineer and led seven governments in 30 years of active politics. He was deposed by military coups in 1971 and 1980, but Sunday, the chiefs of the Turkish General Staff quietly watched from a balcony in Parliament as he became head of state.

Retired Gen. Kenan Evren, leader of the 1980 coup and president from 1982 to 1989, said he now backs the man he once clamped under house arrest and banned from politics for five years for his role in 1970s political instability.

“Time is a machine that digests everything,” Evren told a Turkish newspaper. “In those days there was no state. The Parliament did not work. The wheels of government were not turning. The police was broken up, without training or discipline. . . . Today the state seems to be working. . . . The era of coups is finished.”

The election boded well for Turkey’s medium-term stability. One of the causes of the 1980 coup was the inability of Parliament to elect a president, and Demirel led an opposition boycott of Turgut Ozal’s election in 1989. But Sunday, all parties voted in what was the least controversial Turkish presidential election in decades.

The post was vacated by Ozal’s sudden death of a heart attack April 17. Ozal’s leadership had symbolized much of the breathtaking modernization of Turkey’s infrastructure. Addressing Parliament, Demirel vowed to carry forward market reforms, freedom of expression and human rights.

Bankers, human rights monitors and the domestic opponents all say that Demirel has fallen far short of his declared goals in those areas during his past 18 months as prime minister. But Demirel pleaded Sunday for Turkey’s 10 political parties to work together, especially in view of ethnic conflicts in progress across its borders with the Balkans and the Caucasus.

“With so many fires around us, it is not the time to argue. Let us open a new page,” Demirel said.

Polls say more than 50% of Turks support the presidency of their hard-working leader. But the 101-gun salute in Demirel’s honor stirred little more than indifference among ordinary Turks.

In intellectual and business circles, there is even anger at a political system as out of tune with modern Turkey as the top hat, white tie and tails that are the badge of Demirel’s office. The custom dates back to the 1920s era of republican founder Kemal Ataturk.

Damaged by military coups and Ozal’s domineering style of government, Parliament is once again functioning badly. Nobody seems responsible for anything, debates are poorly attended, and bribery is a way of life. Few of Turkey’s brightest business leaders want to sully their hands in the hurly-burly of Turkish politics.