ISTANBUL |
(Reuters) - Turkey's staunchly secularist military shunned the President's Republic Day reception on Friday night, attended for the first time by his headscarf-wearing wife, in a snub to the country's pious rulers.
In the past President Abdullah Gul had given two separate parties, pandering to secularist sensitivities by conducting the higher-profile evening affair without his spouse, but this year he held just one event, which she co-hosted.
The military held a separate party, Turkish media reported, demonstrating the lingering divide between the secularist old guard and the rising class of conservative Muslims, epitomised by Gul and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
