Ankara, Oct 30: Most of Turkey`s ruling party politicians boycotted a presidential reception to mark the republic`s 80th anniversary, in a row between the secular elite and the Islamic movement over a ban on women wearing headscarves in public, according to media reports. Deputies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) - which emerged from a once-banned Islamist movement - spurned President Ahmet Necdet Sezer`s official reception because he refused to invite the headscarf-wearing wives of AKP officials, including the spouse of the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ministers of the AKP Party did attend, according to Turkish television. But less than 10 of the AKP`s 367 deputies in Parliament were present. It was the first time since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the Turkish Republic in 1923 on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, and set out to transform it into a secular westernised nation, that politicians have declined an invitation to such a presidential reception.

Women are banned by law from wearing the headscarf in universities and public offices. But since the AKP`s overwhelming election victory last year, increasing numbers of ministers` wives have taken to sporting the controversial headwear.

Bureau Report