The Haaretz reports that approximately 300,000 Turks protested in the capital, Ankara, today “to try to stop the ruling AK Party from picking Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as their presidential candidate next week because of his Islamist roots.”

The protestors, most of them members / supporters of the party founded by the father of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, shouted slogans like “Turkey is secular and will remain secular forever!” while waving Turkish flags and banners of Ataturk.

As the article at the Haaretz points out, “the AK Party has its roots in political Islam, and a possible presidency headed by Erdogan has split this secular but predominantly Muslim country seeking European Union membership.”

Secularists - who count, historically, among themselves the powerful army - “fear that if Erdogan, or someone close to him, wins the presidency next month, the government will be able to implement an Islamic agenda without opposition.”

A victory for Erdogan will definitely be a step back for Turkey. Turkey is the most secular ‘Muslim country’ in the world - and the secularists are - as anybody who knows quite some Turks knows - darned proud of it.

“Turkey’s staunchly pro-secular president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer” is one of Erdogan’s fiercest opponents. He warned the Turkish people that “for the first time, the pillars of the secular republic are being openly questioned.”

“‘We are aware of the danger’, the pro-secular Cumhuriyet newspaper headlined on Saturday in white letters printed against a red background.”

Although Erdogan “has shown his commitment to future European Union membership by enacting sweeping reforms that allowed the country to start accession talks in 2005″, secularists do not believe for one second that Erdogan has distanced himself from his Islamist roots: “he has also stoked secularist concerns by speaking out against restrictions on wearing Islamic-style head scarves in government offices and schools and taking steps to bolster religious schools. He tried to criminalize adultery before being forced to back down under intense EU pressure. Some party-run municipalities have taken steps to ban alcohol consumption.”

The chief of the Turkish military - which is, as said, still very powerful in Turkey - General Yasar Buyukanit, has already warned Erdogan not to run for president. Or, at least, that is how his words were interpreted by many. He said last Thursday: “As a citizen and as a member of the armed forces, we hope that someone who is loyal to the principles of the republic - not just in words but in essence - is elected president.”

If Turkey wants to join the E.U. (which more and more Turks oppose, mainly because the E.U. has demanded some ridiculous things of Turkey), it better not elect Erdogan as its president. Many, many Europeans are already quite suspicious about Turkey (yes, because it is a Muslim country. Don’t underestimate the influence of the E.U. - it is much, much more than a European NAFTA. In time, most Europeans expect the EU to become the United States of Europe), a victory for Erdogan won’t do that any good, to say the least.

As I said, quite some Turks are very proud secularists. For these Turks, secularism is an intregal part of the Turkish identity: without secularism, Turkey will no longer truly be Turkey for them.

Lets hope that these secularists will be victorious.