Shouts of “Allahu Akbar” and sermons blaring from speakers continue to echo throughout the cosmopolitan districts of Istanbul in the wake of Friday’s failed military coup, creating a “surreal” scene and stoking fears a nation that remained proudly secular for the last century could be hurtling down the path to full-blown Islamic rule.
(FOX)- As the coup attempt unfolded, President Recep Tayip Erdogan rallied his supporters to the streets and squares of major cities. Long Erdogan’s base, the nation’s most fervent Muslims had steadily been moving from smaller cities and rural villages into the secular intellectual bastions of Istanbul and Ankara. His urgent call amid the coup attempt brought into sharp relief the cultural clash that defines Turkey’s past, and likely, some fear, its future.
“There was a truck with enormous speakers parked next to the main Ataturk statue, blaring first a sermon by an imam, during which everyone stood quietly with their hands held out,” said Paul Loomis, an American expatriate who was in Istanbul’s Taksim Square Saturday night. “Then the soundtrack switched to a `Recep Tayyip Erdogan’ chant set to a beat, and the crowd went wild.
“Religious fervor and support of Erdogan seemed to have fused into one,” he mused, calling the scene “surreal.”
The rhetoric of Erdogan, who has been prime minister or president of Turkey since 2003, has been increasingly religious in recent years and accompanied by crackdowns on the judiciary, the press and critics. In the wake of the failed coup, in which more than 250 people were killed, his government has detained nearly 6,000 military and judicial officials.