Via the BBC: New Turkish parliament sworn in

Turkey has sworn in a new parliament with attention focusing on 20 pro-Kurdish deputies, represented for the first time since 1991.

The new deputies say they want reconciliation and a peaceful solution to the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, which has claimed 30,000 lives since 1983.

The last Kurdish MPs to be elected were jailed for taking their oath in Kurdish but this time they spoke Turkish.

Now it is on to elect the new president:

A candidate needs a two-thirds majority to be elected president in the first two rounds of voting and an absolute majority, 276, in the third round.

The AKP should be easily able to elect a candidate in the third round.

But it also needs a quorum of 367 MPs, a goal which eluded the party last May and led to the early parliamentary elections.

The MHP has hinted it will not boycott the presidential poll, thus ensuring a quorum.

The immediate question is whether the AKP will re-nominate Gul, whose nomination lead to the new elections held last month, or if the AKP will nominate someone else that the nationalists will find more palatable.

From there, once an AKP member is elected, we wait and see what the military does.