Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is probably in need of a few bouquets. His supporters are rallying today but millions have been on the streets against him, the military are effectively threatening a coup and politicians have walked out of parliament, forcing an election upon him in a few weeks time.
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRIME MINISTER, (Translation): How reputable is a doctor who flees from his hospital? An MP who runs from parliament is as reputable.
To his opponents Erdogan is a secret fundamentalist, a Trojan Horse for an extreme Islamic movement, an impression underscored by the segregated crowds that follow him, and - controversially for a Turkish prime minister - by the headscarf that his wife wears, a provocative symbol in Turkey. In recent months Turkish cities have been jammed with the biggest protests in the nation's history. To chants of "No sharia law" millions have taken to the streets protesting against Erdogan's Government.
DR NUR SERTEL, PROFESSOR, ISTANBUL UNIVERSITY (Translation): Unite unite.
Nominally the protests were against the appointment of a new president - also a practising Muslim with a headscarf-wearing wife - but it soon tapped into a broader anxiety about the growth of political Islam in Turkey.
DR NUR SERTEL, (Translation): Welcome to the true Turkey, the true secular Turkey.
Dr Nur Sertel, a professor from Istanbul University, was one of the organisers of the rallies. To Dr Sertel, Erdogan is converting a rising tide of Islamic morality in Turkey into political power. And she sees this election as a defining battle to save democracy and the republic.
DR NUR SERTEL: If you do not control religion, then the believers of the religion will give you, in your hand, the holy book, saying that, "The book is our constitution, you have to obey all the rules." So what will happen? You will not be democratic. You will have to lead your life according to the dogmas of the religion.
Sitting literally astride Asia and Europe, Turkey has always had identity issues - 95% Muslim but often very European in its outlook. A divide most evident in the cosmopolitan sectors of Istanbul. It's here that the government's agenda is feared most and where so many have taken to the streets determined to bring it down.
REPORTER: Do you think the fear of Islam is real, is justified?
MAN: It must be because Turkey has seen demonstrations that we have never seen in our history - ever. First of all, they were the kind of demonstrations led by women - this was unheard of in Turkey. And they were in majority, these were just ordinary women. So if they said they are frightened, who am I to argue?
The election in a few weeks time is rapidly turning into a battle over religion.
REPORTER: Will you be voting for the government?
WOMAN: No.
REPORTER: Why not?
WOMAN: Because I am not religious.
REPORTER: And that is the main issue for you - you think they are religious?
WOMAN: Yes, they are.
REPORTER: Is it a threat to you?
WOMAN: Yes, of course.
REPORTER: Why?
WOMAN: Because in time it will be like Iran. We know that. It is what they want to do. We know that, and they tell it sometimes.
REPORTER: Only sometimes? They don't say it very often?
WOMAN: They don't say it very often. They hide it.
For the moment, talk of voting may be a little moot if the military aren't happy with the result. The Turkish military don't give interviews and normally aren't allowed to be filmed but the Ankara weapons show seems to put them at ease. As the generals reflect on new goodies to buy this year, the government is likely to be pondering about what the military intend to do with their new hardware. At the height of the secular demonstrations, the military weighed in, effectively threatening to launch a coup against the government if it proceeded any further down an Islamic path, a threat that still hangs over Erdogan and the election itself. But for the moment most are hoping that the main game can be played out where it should be - at parliament house.
Onur Oyman is the deputy leader of the main opposition party, the staunchly secular Republican Party. The Prime Minister and Oyman agree on one thing - that this may be the most important election in the history of modern Turkey.
REPORTER: What choice is to be made?
ONUR OYMAN, DEPUTY LEADER, REPUBLICAN PARTY: The choice is between the preservation of our republican value and making Turkey a modern democratic society based on European values, or to make Turkey an Islamic country in the sense of the Middle Eastern countries. Obviously the ultimate purpose of this government is this.
REPORTER: Do you think that's a little extreme to say that in that they don't say that themselves and they do not suggest anything like that?
ONUR OYMAN: It is not extreme because practically all their appointments to key posts in the government was choosing people of religious background, so they try to spread these Islamic values as a political principles.
For an insular fundamentalist prime minister, Erdogan has some surprisingly outward-looking friends.
REPORTER: What is the business community's attitude to the Prime Minister and the government at the moment?
MAN: It is good, it is very good. Why not?
MAN 2: And I have been in the Turkish business for 15 years, the only thing I know is to create jobs, nothing else.
REPORTER: And are those jobs being created?
MAN2: Yes.
These business leaders are waiting for the Prime Minister. Whatever Erdogan's social or religious policies may be, the business community has largely embraced him and his economic reforms.
BUSINESSMAN: Let me put it this way - although this government has an Islamic root, but in terms of government elections, they prove to be a central right-wing party.
Over the past five years Erdogan has pushed hard for Turkey to join the European Union and embarked on large-scale privatisations. The Prime Minister has not only been welcomed by business but by the US and European governments as well, much to the consternation of the secular parties.
REPORTER: For a man who is supposedly has an insular, Islamic view that he wants to impose on people, he is also remarkably outward-looking. That is not He wants to join the EU. He believes in an open economy. This is not the view of a narrow man.
ONUR OYMAN: I know. It is the impression he gives to the outside world. The general feeling in Europe and the United States is that they do not react as much as we would expect to these anti-secular activities. Why? Because their first priority is to get from this government some concessions on Cyprus, on Iraq, on EU matters, on Turkish-American relations. And as long as they get the concessions, they are not interested what is happening inside Turkey.
At parliament house, Murat Murcan surveys his domain.
REPORTER: So which is the parliament?
MURAT MURCAN, DEPUTY CHAIRMAN, JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT PARTY: This building right over there.
Murcan is a senior member of the government, vice-chairman of the Ruling Party and one the PM's closest advisors.
REPORTER: So what sort of majority are you running here?
MURAT MURCAN: We are 352 members out of 550.
REPORTER: Is that an unusually high number?
MURAT MURCAN: It has been first for so many years in Turkish parliamentary democracy.
An unusually high majority that Murcan is confident of retaining, a prospect that fills Onur Oyman with dread.
ONUR OYMAN: The top civil servant they appointed to be under-secretary and is secretarial to all the prime ministry - so the top civil servant of the country - has publicly stated, and he wrote an article saying that we are to stop the secular democracy in Turkey, instead we have to build an Islamic society. So such persons are in the governing heights of Turkey. So with so many examples of..
REPORTER: Of course they can't be excluded from positions of power.
ONUR OYMAN: It is still important.
REPORTER: But it is an Islamic country.
ONUR OYMAN: It is not. Turkey is not an Islamic country. Turkey is a country with Islamic population but we're a secular country.
As one of the founders of the Ruling Party, Murcan concedes it does have a religious background and support base but denies there is any ecclesiastical agenda.
MURAT MURCAN: Still, still I won't say that we're a religious party. Our individual, you know, our individual lifestyle may be religious but some of us are religious, some of us are not religious people.
REPORTER: Are you riding the rise of Islamic faith in Turkey - which is apparent?
MURAT MURCAN: And we do this while we are becoming a member of the European Union? That is a contradiction. By itself it is a contradiction.
For Murcan, the injection of international capital is proof in itself that the government runs a very broad church.
MURAT MURCAN: We have European companies invested in Turkey, integrating into global economy, and yet we are Islamising Turkey. This is, again - to say the least - nonsense. You can translate it into other nice words.
It doesn't quite look like an Islamic government is in power at this weekly protest near parliament house.
WOMAN, (Translation): What we want is to study and work wearing our headscarves, to contribute to the development of our country. Our freedom to study and work is hindered - that's what we struggle for.
There is little doubt that a more strident and outward form of Islam is emerging in Turkey but it is hard to see who is oppressing who - the strict Muslims or the seculars who have been protesting against them.
WOMAN, (Translation): We are not against them having rallies. But thinking our lifestyle poses a danger to them is an imaginary fear. If that were so, this government would have already interfered with their lifestyle.
But at times in Turkey, it seems that the secular forces rule, whoever is in government. There's no shortage of autonomous intelligence agencies, who appear committed to interfering in the lives of practising Muslims. As I walked around talking to these protesters, I was being constantly shadowed by what appeared to be a group of local journalists. But journalists don't usually carry walkie-talkies.
REPORTER: So you're the police, huh?
POLICEMAN: Yes.
REPORTER: Why do you film me?
POLICEMAN: Yes.
REPORTER: Why does he film me?
POLICEMAN: Because we feel like it. Because he wants to.
REPORTER: Why do you film the protest? What do you do with this film?
POLICEMAN, (Translation): Later we get together and watch it with friends.
Those friends are likely to belong to the Directorate of Religious Affairs - a shadowy institution charged with containing and controlling religion in Turkey.
WOMAN: He says it is the same in Australia, you know, police work like this, you know, so they say it is their duty.
REPORTER: Not quite, not quite, not quite.
POLICEMAN: OK. Stop. Stop.
REPORTER: I will stop when you stop.
POLICEMAN: Stop.
REPORTER: OK, I will not film you if you do not film me. OK. There we go.
WOMAN, (Translation): Islam is hindered...it is not allowed. There is no freedom! It is more restricted now, there are more bans. People are more pressured, more oppressed. People are not free.
The military, police and religious affairs intently monitor all activities in Turkey. Anyone who utters statements against the secular state can be imprisoned, sacked from their job and barred from politics. Even those currently in government, as Murat Murcan well knows.
MURAT MURCAN: Now, of course in Turkey, according to Turkish constitution, criticising the Directorate of Religious Affairs is illegal according to Turkish constitution.
REPORTER: So you would not do it?
MURAT MURCAN: I would not do it publicly. I would not comment on it publicly.
REPORTER: This is extraordinary as you are a member of parliament..
Murcan is equally tight-lipped in commenting on the military, which has just threatened to overthrow his government.
REPORTER: So you're happy with the role of the military in Turkey? Are you happy with the military effectively..
MURAT MURCAN: I am happy with the role of military in Turkey as described in the constitution.
REPORTER: Not necessarily as performed currently?
MURAT MURCAN: As described in constitution and in legal framework.
DR NUR SERTEL: Since Islam is a political religion, the only way of preserving democracy is attained by controlling religion. There is no other way. There is... I'm very sincere on it. There is no other way.
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): I run the best law office in Trabzon.
Ayse Kadioglu may run the best legal practice in town but she has been barred from appearing in court because of her choice in head gear. Ayse is intimately involved in two of the most contentious issues in Turkey - headscarves and the religious education of children.
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): We're going to watch a children's competition at The Gulbahar Hatun College.
Ayse's two daughters are attending weekend classes at this private religious school in the northern town of Trabzon. It's just art and dance today but suspicion and controversy swirl around schools like these, a suspicion that the government tolerates illegal koranic teaching in private schools and is escalating the role of religion in state schools.
MURAT MURCAN: The content of religious course is just one hour a week. It is more moral values, moral teachings of Islam rather than, you know, practising of Islam.
REPORTER: But what are those moral teachings? I guess this touches on the fear.
MURAT MURCAN: Being honest, being straightforward, feeling from God.
REPORTER: Segregation of men and women in society?
MURAT MURCAN: No, no.
REPORTER: Isolation of women from the workforce?
MURAT MURCAN: That doesn't...that is not... that is nonsense.
REPORTER: Prohibitions on alcohol?
MURAT MURCAN: No, that is nonsense, that is nonsense.
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): Like everywhere in the world, it's hard being a woman but it's harder in Turkey because double standards apply. It's even harder being a woman who wears a headscarf.
REPORTER: Can you wear them in school?
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): No.
REPORTER: Can you wear them in university?
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): No.
REPORTER: Can you wear them in your profession?
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): No.
REPORTER: Why not? Who stops you? Who stops you?
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): Polices that reflect a fear of the Turkish people. Nothing else.
Stymied in her career, Ayse is planning to take her challenge to parliament. She hopes to become a candidate for the government in the coming election but it would be hugely controversial for the government to select a headscarf-wearing candidate even though many current ministers have covered wives, including Murat Murcan.
REPORTER: Your wife couldn't become a lawyer, say, your wife couldn't become a professor, your wife couldn't enter parliament.
MURAT MURCAN: Of course I'm not very happy with how life is treating my wife, but if that is the fact of life, sometimes we have to live with it and we have to struggle against it within the framework of, you know, democratic principles.
Like several other long-serving world leaders Recep Tayyip Erdogan has managed to combine right-wing economics while still appealing to a religious heartland.
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, (Translation): We have not made any compromises, and we won't start now.
Erdogan's reputation as a religious man may yet return him to government. But if he wins another term, how long will Muslims - radical or otherwise - tolerate the constraints upon them with a supposedly Islamic government in power?
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): The Friday sermons are centrally controlled and are exactly the same throughout Turkey. All clergy work for the state, get their salaries from the state. It does not have an autonomous structure.
Whatever its religious agenda, the government is being nothing but pragmatic in this campaign. Ayse's bid to become a candidate in her home town is rejected. But women like Ayse are unlikely to remain in the background for long.
ONUR OYMAN: The opposition will win the election despite all the efforts of foreigners, all the payments of pro-government businesspeople, all the efforts of some radical intellectuals. We will win the elections.
The Republicans are pushing this election as a do-or-die moment for secular Turkey, and they may succeed in galvanising those votes. But having raised the stakes so high, what if secular Turks suddenly find themselves in the minority? It is ironic to say the least that traditional middle-class liberals are now courting with the military as their ultimate defenders.
REPORTER: Do you support the military's threats of coup?
MAN, (Translation): From time to time.
REPORTER: Why?
MAN, (Translation): If there is a danger from religion a military coup is inevitable. There should be a coup.
WOMAN: The military needs those things, those fears - "Oh, we're going to be Iran," or something.
REPORTER: So these fears are helping the military, you feel?
WOMAN: Unfortunately, yes.
REPORTER: So you would choose the military over the mullahs?
MAN: Definitely. Exactly.
MARK DAVIS: Opinion polls to date are suggesting that the government will be returned. If that happens, it seems that all eyes will then turn to the military.
Credits
Reporter/Camera
MARK DAVIS
Editors
ROWAN TUCKER-EVANS
Fixer
SERPIL KARACAN
Subtitling
GÜN GENCER
Production Company
SBS Australia - Dateline
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRIME MINISTER, (Translation): How reputable is a doctor who flees from his hospital? An MP who runs from parliament is as reputable.
To his opponents Erdogan is a secret fundamentalist, a Trojan Horse for an extreme Islamic movement, an impression underscored by the segregated crowds that follow him, and - controversially for a Turkish prime minister - by the headscarf that his wife wears, a provocative symbol in Turkey. In recent months Turkish cities have been jammed with the biggest protests in the nation's history. To chants of "No sharia law" millions have taken to the streets protesting against Erdogan's Government.
DR NUR SERTEL, PROFESSOR, ISTANBUL UNIVERSITY (Translation): Unite unite.
Nominally the protests were against the appointment of a new president - also a practising Muslim with a headscarf-wearing wife - but it soon tapped into a broader anxiety about the growth of political Islam in Turkey.
DR NUR SERTEL, (Translation): Welcome to the true Turkey, the true secular Turkey.
Dr Nur Sertel, a professor from Istanbul University, was one of the organisers of the rallies. To Dr Sertel, Erdogan is converting a rising tide of Islamic morality in Turkey into political power. And she sees this election as a defining battle to save democracy and the republic.
DR NUR SERTEL: If you do not control religion, then the believers of the religion will give you, in your hand, the holy book, saying that, "The book is our constitution, you have to obey all the rules." So what will happen? You will not be democratic. You will have to lead your life according to the dogmas of the religion.
Sitting literally astride Asia and Europe, Turkey has always had identity issues - 95% Muslim but often very European in its outlook. A divide most evident in the cosmopolitan sectors of Istanbul. It's here that the government's agenda is feared most and where so many have taken to the streets determined to bring it down.
REPORTER: Do you think the fear of Islam is real, is justified?
MAN: It must be because Turkey has seen demonstrations that we have never seen in our history - ever. First of all, they were the kind of demonstrations led by women - this was unheard of in Turkey. And they were in majority, these were just ordinary women. So if they said they are frightened, who am I to argue?
The election in a few weeks time is rapidly turning into a battle over religion.
REPORTER: Will you be voting for the government?
WOMAN: No.
REPORTER: Why not?
WOMAN: Because I am not religious.
REPORTER: And that is the main issue for you - you think they are religious?
WOMAN: Yes, they are.
REPORTER: Is it a threat to you?
WOMAN: Yes, of course.
REPORTER: Why?
WOMAN: Because in time it will be like Iran. We know that. It is what they want to do. We know that, and they tell it sometimes.
REPORTER: Only sometimes? They don't say it very often?
WOMAN: They don't say it very often. They hide it.
For the moment, talk of voting may be a little moot if the military aren't happy with the result. The Turkish military don't give interviews and normally aren't allowed to be filmed but the Ankara weapons show seems to put them at ease. As the generals reflect on new goodies to buy this year, the government is likely to be pondering about what the military intend to do with their new hardware. At the height of the secular demonstrations, the military weighed in, effectively threatening to launch a coup against the government if it proceeded any further down an Islamic path, a threat that still hangs over Erdogan and the election itself. But for the moment most are hoping that the main game can be played out where it should be - at parliament house.
Onur Oyman is the deputy leader of the main opposition party, the staunchly secular Republican Party. The Prime Minister and Oyman agree on one thing - that this may be the most important election in the history of modern Turkey.
REPORTER: What choice is to be made?
ONUR OYMAN, DEPUTY LEADER, REPUBLICAN PARTY: The choice is between the preservation of our republican value and making Turkey a modern democratic society based on European values, or to make Turkey an Islamic country in the sense of the Middle Eastern countries. Obviously the ultimate purpose of this government is this.
REPORTER: Do you think that's a little extreme to say that in that they don't say that themselves and they do not suggest anything like that?
ONUR OYMAN: It is not extreme because practically all their appointments to key posts in the government was choosing people of religious background, so they try to spread these Islamic values as a political principles.
For an insular fundamentalist prime minister, Erdogan has some surprisingly outward-looking friends.
REPORTER: What is the business community's attitude to the Prime Minister and the government at the moment?
MAN: It is good, it is very good. Why not?
MAN 2: And I have been in the Turkish business for 15 years, the only thing I know is to create jobs, nothing else.
REPORTER: And are those jobs being created?
MAN2: Yes.
These business leaders are waiting for the Prime Minister. Whatever Erdogan's social or religious policies may be, the business community has largely embraced him and his economic reforms.
BUSINESSMAN: Let me put it this way - although this government has an Islamic root, but in terms of government elections, they prove to be a central right-wing party.
Over the past five years Erdogan has pushed hard for Turkey to join the European Union and embarked on large-scale privatisations. The Prime Minister has not only been welcomed by business but by the US and European governments as well, much to the consternation of the secular parties.
REPORTER: For a man who is supposedly has an insular, Islamic view that he wants to impose on people, he is also remarkably outward-looking. That is not He wants to join the EU. He believes in an open economy. This is not the view of a narrow man.
ONUR OYMAN: I know. It is the impression he gives to the outside world. The general feeling in Europe and the United States is that they do not react as much as we would expect to these anti-secular activities. Why? Because their first priority is to get from this government some concessions on Cyprus, on Iraq, on EU matters, on Turkish-American relations. And as long as they get the concessions, they are not interested what is happening inside Turkey.
At parliament house, Murat Murcan surveys his domain.
REPORTER: So which is the parliament?
MURAT MURCAN, DEPUTY CHAIRMAN, JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT PARTY: This building right over there.
Murcan is a senior member of the government, vice-chairman of the Ruling Party and one the PM's closest advisors.
REPORTER: So what sort of majority are you running here?
MURAT MURCAN: We are 352 members out of 550.
REPORTER: Is that an unusually high number?
MURAT MURCAN: It has been first for so many years in Turkish parliamentary democracy.
An unusually high majority that Murcan is confident of retaining, a prospect that fills Onur Oyman with dread.
ONUR OYMAN: The top civil servant they appointed to be under-secretary and is secretarial to all the prime ministry - so the top civil servant of the country - has publicly stated, and he wrote an article saying that we are to stop the secular democracy in Turkey, instead we have to build an Islamic society. So such persons are in the governing heights of Turkey. So with so many examples of..
REPORTER: Of course they can't be excluded from positions of power.
ONUR OYMAN: It is still important.
REPORTER: But it is an Islamic country.
ONUR OYMAN: It is not. Turkey is not an Islamic country. Turkey is a country with Islamic population but we're a secular country.
As one of the founders of the Ruling Party, Murcan concedes it does have a religious background and support base but denies there is any ecclesiastical agenda.
MURAT MURCAN: Still, still I won't say that we're a religious party. Our individual, you know, our individual lifestyle may be religious but some of us are religious, some of us are not religious people.
REPORTER: Are you riding the rise of Islamic faith in Turkey - which is apparent?
MURAT MURCAN: And we do this while we are becoming a member of the European Union? That is a contradiction. By itself it is a contradiction.
For Murcan, the injection of international capital is proof in itself that the government runs a very broad church.
MURAT MURCAN: We have European companies invested in Turkey, integrating into global economy, and yet we are Islamising Turkey. This is, again - to say the least - nonsense. You can translate it into other nice words.
It doesn't quite look like an Islamic government is in power at this weekly protest near parliament house.
WOMAN, (Translation): What we want is to study and work wearing our headscarves, to contribute to the development of our country. Our freedom to study and work is hindered - that's what we struggle for.
There is little doubt that a more strident and outward form of Islam is emerging in Turkey but it is hard to see who is oppressing who - the strict Muslims or the seculars who have been protesting against them.
WOMAN, (Translation): We are not against them having rallies. But thinking our lifestyle poses a danger to them is an imaginary fear. If that were so, this government would have already interfered with their lifestyle.
But at times in Turkey, it seems that the secular forces rule, whoever is in government. There's no shortage of autonomous intelligence agencies, who appear committed to interfering in the lives of practising Muslims. As I walked around talking to these protesters, I was being constantly shadowed by what appeared to be a group of local journalists. But journalists don't usually carry walkie-talkies.
REPORTER: So you're the police, huh?
POLICEMAN: Yes.
REPORTER: Why do you film me?
POLICEMAN: Yes.
REPORTER: Why does he film me?
POLICEMAN: Because we feel like it. Because he wants to.
REPORTER: Why do you film the protest? What do you do with this film?
POLICEMAN, (Translation): Later we get together and watch it with friends.
Those friends are likely to belong to the Directorate of Religious Affairs - a shadowy institution charged with containing and controlling religion in Turkey.
WOMAN: He says it is the same in Australia, you know, police work like this, you know, so they say it is their duty.
REPORTER: Not quite, not quite, not quite.
POLICEMAN: OK. Stop. Stop.
REPORTER: I will stop when you stop.
POLICEMAN: Stop.
REPORTER: OK, I will not film you if you do not film me. OK. There we go.
WOMAN, (Translation): Islam is hindered...it is not allowed. There is no freedom! It is more restricted now, there are more bans. People are more pressured, more oppressed. People are not free.
The military, police and religious affairs intently monitor all activities in Turkey. Anyone who utters statements against the secular state can be imprisoned, sacked from their job and barred from politics. Even those currently in government, as Murat Murcan well knows.
MURAT MURCAN: Now, of course in Turkey, according to Turkish constitution, criticising the Directorate of Religious Affairs is illegal according to Turkish constitution.
REPORTER: So you would not do it?
MURAT MURCAN: I would not do it publicly. I would not comment on it publicly.
REPORTER: This is extraordinary as you are a member of parliament..
Murcan is equally tight-lipped in commenting on the military, which has just threatened to overthrow his government.
REPORTER: So you're happy with the role of the military in Turkey? Are you happy with the military effectively..
MURAT MURCAN: I am happy with the role of military in Turkey as described in the constitution.
REPORTER: Not necessarily as performed currently?
MURAT MURCAN: As described in constitution and in legal framework.
DR NUR SERTEL: Since Islam is a political religion, the only way of preserving democracy is attained by controlling religion. There is no other way. There is... I'm very sincere on it. There is no other way.
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): I run the best law office in Trabzon.
Ayse Kadioglu may run the best legal practice in town but she has been barred from appearing in court because of her choice in head gear. Ayse is intimately involved in two of the most contentious issues in Turkey - headscarves and the religious education of children.
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): We're going to watch a children's competition at The Gulbahar Hatun College.
Ayse's two daughters are attending weekend classes at this private religious school in the northern town of Trabzon. It's just art and dance today but suspicion and controversy swirl around schools like these, a suspicion that the government tolerates illegal koranic teaching in private schools and is escalating the role of religion in state schools.
MURAT MURCAN: The content of religious course is just one hour a week. It is more moral values, moral teachings of Islam rather than, you know, practising of Islam.
REPORTER: But what are those moral teachings? I guess this touches on the fear.
MURAT MURCAN: Being honest, being straightforward, feeling from God.
REPORTER: Segregation of men and women in society?
MURAT MURCAN: No, no.
REPORTER: Isolation of women from the workforce?
MURAT MURCAN: That doesn't...that is not... that is nonsense.
REPORTER: Prohibitions on alcohol?
MURAT MURCAN: No, that is nonsense, that is nonsense.
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): Like everywhere in the world, it's hard being a woman but it's harder in Turkey because double standards apply. It's even harder being a woman who wears a headscarf.
REPORTER: Can you wear them in school?
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): No.
REPORTER: Can you wear them in university?
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): No.
REPORTER: Can you wear them in your profession?
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): No.
REPORTER: Why not? Who stops you? Who stops you?
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): Polices that reflect a fear of the Turkish people. Nothing else.
Stymied in her career, Ayse is planning to take her challenge to parliament. She hopes to become a candidate for the government in the coming election but it would be hugely controversial for the government to select a headscarf-wearing candidate even though many current ministers have covered wives, including Murat Murcan.
REPORTER: Your wife couldn't become a lawyer, say, your wife couldn't become a professor, your wife couldn't enter parliament.
MURAT MURCAN: Of course I'm not very happy with how life is treating my wife, but if that is the fact of life, sometimes we have to live with it and we have to struggle against it within the framework of, you know, democratic principles.
Like several other long-serving world leaders Recep Tayyip Erdogan has managed to combine right-wing economics while still appealing to a religious heartland.
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, (Translation): We have not made any compromises, and we won't start now.
Erdogan's reputation as a religious man may yet return him to government. But if he wins another term, how long will Muslims - radical or otherwise - tolerate the constraints upon them with a supposedly Islamic government in power?
AYSE KADIOGLU, (Translation): The Friday sermons are centrally controlled and are exactly the same throughout Turkey. All clergy work for the state, get their salaries from the state. It does not have an autonomous structure.
Whatever its religious agenda, the government is being nothing but pragmatic in this campaign. Ayse's bid to become a candidate in her home town is rejected. But women like Ayse are unlikely to remain in the background for long.
ONUR OYMAN: The opposition will win the election despite all the efforts of foreigners, all the payments of pro-government businesspeople, all the efforts of some radical intellectuals. We will win the elections.
The Republicans are pushing this election as a do-or-die moment for secular Turkey, and they may succeed in galvanising those votes. But having raised the stakes so high, what if secular Turks suddenly find themselves in the minority? It is ironic to say the least that traditional middle-class liberals are now courting with the military as their ultimate defenders.
REPORTER: Do you support the military's threats of coup?
MAN, (Translation): From time to time.
REPORTER: Why?
MAN, (Translation): If there is a danger from religion a military coup is inevitable. There should be a coup.
WOMAN: The military needs those things, those fears - "Oh, we're going to be Iran," or something.
REPORTER: So these fears are helping the military, you feel?
WOMAN: Unfortunately, yes.
REPORTER: So you would choose the military over the mullahs?
MAN: Definitely. Exactly.
MARK DAVIS: Opinion polls to date are suggesting that the government will be returned. If that happens, it seems that all eyes will then turn to the military.
Credits
Reporter/Camera
MARK DAVIS
Editors
ROWAN TUCKER-EVANS
Fixer
SERPIL KARACAN
Subtitling
GÜN GENCER
Production Company
SBS Australia - Dateline