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Women in modern Turkey

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'Worrying' symbol
In strictly secular Turkey, that makes some people nervous.
"Are we really a threat to the system?" asks Mr Hasyuncu, laughing at the suggestion. "Secular Turks are trying to label us as something we're not. It's like they're seeing nightmares." 

If there is a symbol of all that worries secular Turks, it is the Islamic headscarf and in conservative Kayseri covered women are a common sight. 

In one room of a smartly refurbished centre run by the city council, three girls study Islamic art, their flat-nibbed pens scratching across the paper. They say they cover their heads as an expression of their personal faith. But away from here, less religious Turks are convinced the headscarf represents an Islamic political agenda.

"We face this kind of attitude very often and it makes us very uncomfortable," Emine says. "I don't think my scarf is a threat to anyone. But what can we do? It would take a miracle to change things here."
At the last election, 54% of voters here helped elect the AK party into office. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is a local.

Kayseri promotes itself as proof that you can be a devout Muslim and still be secular and modern. 


But the fact that religious conservatives have political power now worries some people elsewhere in the country.

That worry is felt in Izmir on the west coast, where in the summer locals pack the nightclubs and the bars. Women wear miniskirts and low-cut tops here without a second thought. And there's alcohol.
 
Modern lifestyle
But Izmir people call themselves modern Muslims too and for them, it is secularism that is sacred - as introduced by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He banished religion from politics when he founded the republic.
"We need to protect our modern lifestyle. We don't want very religious or conservative people to govern us," says club manager Ali Korur, as loud music pumps out across the bay from his 24-hour beach club.
Mr Korur believes the secular system guarantees his freedom. The most popular political party here in his town is the Republican opposition CHP.

"We need a leader that takes us to the West not to the East," he explains.
Back in town, Hanri Benazus sorts through photographs of the leader who first turned Turkey to face the West.

"Ataturk really was a great man. Everything that is contemporary in Turkey is down to him," he says, pointing out pictures of Ataturk in a smart suit and hat, or skimpy swimming shorts.

A young woman sports a poster of Ataturk at a rally in Izmir

"Some people worry his revolution is in danger, but I think people who are used to modern life will never return to the age of ignorance." But that fear is real for some.

When the AK party tried to put a devout man in the presidency, thousands took to the streets in protest carrying enormous national flags. One of the largest demonstrations was here in Izmir.

The government was forced to back down for now. But some suggest the crisis over the presidential election exposed a deeper division here.
"There may be two Turkeys in terms of lifestyle," concedes Professor Tanju Tosun of Izmir's Ege university.
"But step by step we are absorbing democratic values and learning to live together."

It is a delicate balancing act.
The two Turkeys have lived side by side for eight decades. But now power is swinging towards more religious-minded Turks, the country's secular system - and its democracy - are being tested.

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