Turkey’s 80th birthday mired by rows over secularism

Crushing all opposition, he purged religion from the state and education system, placed religious activities under control, replaced the Arabic alphabet with the Latin one, granted civil rights to women and even changed the way Turks dress, banning the fez, the traditional red, soft-felt cap.

Eight decades on, his legacy remains the dominant ideology of a country which has come closer to the West than any other Muslim nation. Turkey is today the sole Muslim member of NATO and is bidding to join the European Union.

But Kemalism is increasingly challenged by Islamic-leanings forces, like the ruling Justice and Development Party as well as by liberals who argue that its authoritarian and nationalism impedes democratization of the country.

The army-led establishment, which fears that any deviation from stringent secularist norms will one day destroy Ataturk’s republic, has used all means – political, judicial and military – to thwart the revival of political Islam and calls for broader religious freedoms since the 1970s.

Since AKP’s stunning election victory last year, the battle has shifted to a highly symbolic field – the ban on women wearing the Islamic headscarf in universities and public offices.

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer seized on the republic’s 80th anniversary as an opportunity to deliver a tough message.

In an unprecedented move which has caused public uproar, Sezer, who will host a reception on October 29, snubbed the headscarf-wearing wives of MPs, inviting only spouses who are not veiled.

"This was to show that challenges to the current understanding of secularism will be resisted," political scientist Ilter Turan said.

The controversy came atop already high-running tensions over educational reforms planned by the government, which many see as a bid to help Islamist supporters win university degrees and then obtain prominent jobs in the public sector.

Despite disavowing his Islamist past, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains closely watched by the army, which in 1997 ousted from power Turkey’s first Islamist government to which Erdogan and his aides belonged