Insight: Turkish troubles highlight cultural divide
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan stands before a sea of cheering faithful waving Turkish flags and, to shouts of "Allahu Akbar", God is Greatest, summons the spirit of pious Ottoman poets in denouncing protesters who challenge his power.
Across Istanbul, the same flags, white crescent moon and star on a red background, are raised; but they proclaim what some Erdogan critics see as a different kind of Turkey.
Riots and protests have highlighted an underlying schism in Turkish society reaching back to the 1920s when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk forged a secular republic from the ruins of an Ottoman theocracy. He banished Islam from public life, replaced Arabic with Latin script and promoted Western dress and women's rights.
What emerged was a sometimes uneasy cohabitation of what some have called "White Turks", a secular Western-facing elite, and "Black Turks" - a more conservative, religious population largely excluded from the privileges of state power and viewed warily by generals long considered guardians of secularism.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/10/us-turkey-protests-cultures-insight-idUSBRE9590GS20130610
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