In the lead-up to the 89th anniversary of the Turkish Republic on 29 October, political values have never been more openly debated, thanks to a public consultation process, initiated by Turkey's parliament, for a new constitution.
Generally, society has welcomed the initiative, viewing it as a new political framework, to replace the one that was put in place after the 1980 military coup.
But the process has opened old wounds, with heated debate on the role of religion in politics and the increasingly conservative nature of public life.
Secularism is hard to define in Turkey, according to Fadi Hakura of London-based think tank Chatham House. Turkey is constitutionally a secular state, but secularism seems to have taken a unique shape, because of "historical and geographical circumstances in the country".
For example, while there are clear examples of the symbolic application of secularism in daily life, such as the ban on headscarves in public institutions, there are other aspects of the Turkish state that do not sit with secularism. » | Arash Dabestani, Pinar Sevinclidir and Ertugrul Erol | BBC Monitoring | Wednesday, October 24, 2012
