Mass demonstration in Samsun for a secular Turkey

May 20, 2007, 13:54 GMT

Thousands of Turks demonstrate in the northern Turkish city of Samsun against the Islamic-rooted government, claiming it was undermining Turkey\'s secular system on 20 May 2007. The Black Sea port city of Samsun is where Turkey\'s secular founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, launched the country\'s fight for independence after World War I. EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU

Istanbul - Tens of thousands took to the streets of the Black Sea Turkish city of Samsun on Sunday to protest against the conservative Islamic-rooted government and to demand the maintenance of the separation between religion and state.

The demonstration in Samsun, which passed without incident, was the latest in a series of pro-secular protests that have seen millions take to the streets of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

Waving red and white Turkish flags and holding aloft posters of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic, the protesters voiced their opposition to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

'Turkey is secular and will remain so ... The way to the presidency is closed for sharia law ... How happy it is to call oneself a Turk,' were some of the slogans chanted by the protesters.

The protest movement was sparked by an attempt to have Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul elected as president by parliament.

Many secular Turks are afraid though that if Gul becomes president, and with the AK Party controlling both the parliament and the prime minister's office, there would be nothing to stop the party from watering down Turkey's strict secular laws.

After the parliamentary vote failed to reach quorum - caused, it is believed, by a stern warning from the Turkish military against the Islamization of the state - lawmakers called for fresh elections on July 22 as a way out of the crisis.