The funeral of former Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit turned into a protest against the Islamic-rooted government on Saturday, when thousands of pro-secular mourners booed the Turkish premier at a mosque and vowed to defend the secular regime against the rising profile of Islam. "Turkey is secular and will remain secular," thousands of people shouted when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived at the Kocatepe mosque for funeral prayers for Ecevit, who died on Nov. 5 at age 81, after nearly six months in a coma following a stroke.Ecevit, a respected pro-secular political force in Turkey for almost half a century, served five times as Turkey's prime minister. He was best known for ordering the 1974 invasion of Cyprus, which led to the division of the Mediterranean island, but made him a hero at home. His decades-long struggle for workers' social rights also made him popular with the working class.
| Erdogan reacted angrily to the protest. "Who of you is saying this? You are saying this to someone who is struggling" for secularism, he said. "Is there anyone who is working against it that you are saying this to? These are not nice things." |
Erdogan reacted angrily to the protest during a speech at his party congress later on Saturday. "Who of you is saying this? You are saying this to someone who is struggling" for secularism, he said. "Is there anyone who is working against it that you are saying this to? These are not nice things."
Since taking power in 2002, Erdogan has increased secularists' concerns by speaking out against restrictions on wearing Islamic-style head scarves in government offices and schools and by supporting religious schools. He also tried to criminalize adultery before being forced to back down under intense European Union pressure, and some party-run municipalities have taken steps to ban alcohol.