Turkey Confirms Ruling Party's Victory

Turkish authorities announced the final results of last week's general elections Monday, confirming the ruling party's victory.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted AKP took 341 of the 550 seats, down from 351 in the outgoing parliament, electoral board director Muammer Aydin said.

The election was called early to defuse a showdown with the military-backed, secular establishment, which contended that Erdogan and his allies were plotting to scrap Turkey's secular traditions despite their openness to the West.

Erdogan raised concern with his efforts as prime minister to make adultery a crime and appoint former Islamists to key positions. Critics were also troubled by his calls for the lifting of restrictions on the wearing of Islamic headscarves.

The prime minister pledged in his victory speech to safeguard the country's secular traditions and do whatever the government deems necessary to fight separatist Kurdish rebels.

Erdogan, a devout Muslim, told supporters that he would preserve pluralistic democracy and work for national unity.

"We will never make concessions over the values of people, the basic principles of our republic. This is our promise. We will embrace Turkey as a whole without discriminating," he said at a rally in the capital Ankara.

Although the ruling party's success has been touted as proof that Islam and democracy can coexist, the new government is likely to face persistent tension over the role of Islam in society.

"Democracy has passed a very important test," Erdogan said. "Whoever you have voted for ... We respect your choices. We regard your differences as part of our pluralist democracy. It is our responsibility to safeguard this richness."

The government will also have to decide how to deal with violence by Kurdish rebels seeking autonomy. NATO member Turkey is considering whether to stage an offensive into northern Iraq against separatist Kurdish rebels who rest, train and re-supply at bases there.

Erdogan has warned the incursion could happen if security talks with Iraq and the United States fail. He has invited Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to visit Turkey.