HT to WeaselZippers! President's wife wears hijab. Army brass not amused. Purges and coups coming?| Purges already happening -- a number of top military people are already jailed for supposedly planning a coup attempt, another several just picked up for talking to Mossad or something... |
The military organised a separate reception at the same time to give the Generals an excuse not to accept the President's invitation, the reports said. The secularist main Opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) also declined Gul's invitation.
Turkey's First Lady has worn the hijab, which covers the head and neck, since adolescence. The boycott was criticised by Prime Minister Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose wife also wears the headscarf.
The army's Generals, who see themselves as custodians of the Turkish republic, regard the headscarf as a threat to the state's secular traditions and are against any relaxation of the ban on wearing them in schools and government buildings.