Ankara, Oct 26: Turkey is marking its 80th birthday this week, but celebrations are mired in growing hostility between a belligerent secularist elite and Islamist-leaning rivals of increasing political strength. A government led by former members of a banned Islamist movement was hardly part of the future Mustafa Kemal Ataturk envisaged on October 29, 1923 when he proclaimed the Republic on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire and moved to transform it -- with an iron fist -- into a secular westernized nation.
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 (AKP) as well as by liberals who argue that its authoritarian and nationalism impedes democratisation 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.
Bureau Report