Outgoing Turkish first lady in rare criticism of media

The wife of Turkey's outgoing President Abdullah Gul has launched an angry and highly unusual attack on his critics, complaining he was subjected to "falsehoods and disrespect" while in power, media reported Wednesday.

As president, Abdullah Gul was known for choosing his words with extreme care, but his wife Hayrunnisa showed now such caution at a farewell reception late Tuesday.

Hayrunnisa Gul has made few interventions since Gul became president in 2007 and until now has been largely a silent -- if always impeccably dressed -- presence at his side.

"We've seen what have been written and said. I know everything," she told Turkish reporters in comments published throughout the media.

"Abdullah Bey was shutting down the Internet and taking the new bulletins away so as not to upset me," she added, referring to her husband by a traditional form of address.

"Abdullah Bey cannot say this out of courtesy. But he was subjected to many falsehoods, and a great deal of disrespect," she complained.

Gul is expected to retreat to the political sidelines when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan takes the presidency on August 28.

The two men were once seen as close comrades, but strains have become more apparent in recent months and pro-Gul commentators have complained of an unpleasant smear campaign against the outgoing president.

There was a huge controversy when Gul was nominated as president because Hayrunnisa wears the Islamic headscarf, which many in the secular elite were not happy with.

However, in a sign of how Turkey has changed under the rule of Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), there will be no such controversy when his headscarf-wearing wife Emine steps into the Cankaya presidential palace.