President Abdullah Gul, who hails from the same Islamist roots as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been cultivating an image for himself as a religiously devout, yet politically liberal and Western-oriented politician keen on European democratic and legal standards for Turkey.

Erdogan, with whom he cofounded and carried the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to victory, however, has landed him in a position where his politically positive political persona took a nose-dive, leaving him on the defensive.

Gul was faced with biting criticism at home and abroad after he endorsed an Internet law that would enable the head of the Directorate of Telecommunications (TIB), who is a government appointee, to more or less instantly restrict access to any Web content deemed damaging to the government.

Gul was left in an equally difficult position after the government passed a new law on the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) that would bring the legislature under its control in violation of the principle of the separation of powers. That law is in front of Gul, awaiting endorsement.