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Riz Khan

What lies ahead for Turkey?

Tensions between the country’s secularists and Islamists are growing.

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A pro-secular rally in the northern Turkish city of
Samsun [AFP]

Tensions between Turkey’s secular and more pious Muslims are growing.

With a parliamentary and constitutional battle looming over not only who will be the next president of Turkey but how that person should be selected, the country seems to be at an historic crossroads. 

At the centre of the current crisis is the hijab, or Islamic headscarf, which is banned in state buildings.

The wife of the ruling AK Party’s presidential candidate wears hijab and many secular Turks argue that the ceremonial post of First Lady should not be held by a woman in hijab. 

But as the country goes through what seems to be a crisis of identity, it is also dealing with the challenge posed by Kurdish separatist groups operating on the Iraqi border; the possibility of a Turkish military incursion into Iraq; and a bid for EU membership. 

Join us on Monday as we speak with Ömer Taşpınar of the Brookings Institution and the Hudson Institute’s Zeyno Baran who joins us from Istanbul as we ask, what lies ahead for Turkey?

This episode of Riz Khan aired on 4 June 2007

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