Crowds estimated at well over one million converged on Istanbul's Çağlayan Square on 30 April 2007, carrying Turkish flags and portraits of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in a broad show of support for secular governance. The demonstration was organized by roughly 600 civil society groups and drew participants from cities across the country. Organizers claimed as many as four million attended; independent estimates put the figure at one million or more.
AKP presidential candidate and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül, whose nomination had already triggered a large rally in Ankara two weeks earlier, said he would not step aside. He described his candidacy as the product of "long surveys and exchange of views" and said the matter would ultimately rest with the Constitutional Court.
Business associations weighed in as well. TÜSIAD declared early parliamentary elections necessary to preserve democratic and secular order, while TOBB called on all sides to resolve the crisis through constitutional means before political uncertainty damaged the economy.
Meanwhile, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer hosted Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf at the presidential palace in Ankara, where Türkiye urged both leaders to reduce tensions between their countries.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in April 2007, in its own words.