 According to the Guardian Unlimited, Erdoğan showed his Islamist nature when he initiated a move in 2004 to criminalize adultery, which eventually failed under intense pressure from the secularist forces in the country and the European Union, which Turkey has been trying to join.General Yaşar Büyükanıt, Chief of the Turkish General Staff, warned against Islamic fundamentalism in October 2006.Prime Minister Erdoğan replied that there was no such threat.