With the Turkish government edging closer to Islamism, hundreds of thousands of Turks took to the streets to protest against Islamism and for the secular government of Turkey which has been the mainstay of Turkey for nearly a century.

The Turkish military sees itself and is seen by many Turks as the last savior of secularism in Turkey.  The rally over the weekend was in part a response to a statement by the military.

In an official statement, the General Staff declared that “it should not be forgotten that the Turkish Armed Forces is one of the parties to this [secular versus Islamists] debate and is the absolute defender of secularism”.

This brought upon fears of a coup, however the Turkish military’s role is partially to ensure the government of Turkey remains secular.

Issues which are seemingly trivial in Europe are front and center in Turkey.

Mr Erdogan had been eyeing the job himself. But sustained secular opposition, culminating in a huge anti-government rally in Ankara last week, forced Mr Erdogan to nominate his robustly pro-Western foreign minister, Abdullah Gul.

But the military remains unswayed, not least because Mr Gul’s wife wears the Islamic headscarf.

“A woman who covers her head cannot sit in Ataturk’s palace,” said Nesrin Akkoc at yesterday’s rally. “Turkey will not become another Iran.”

The Telegraph notes Turkey’s entry into the EU might be complicated with talks of the Turkish military maintaining secularism, however one of the protestors summed it up quite nicely.

“Secularism is more precious to us than democracy,” said Cenk Kutludemir, a student. “And the EU won’t ever accept us anyway, to hell with EU.”

That seems to be true, but I don’t see how protests for secularism and against Islamism would hamper any EU membership.