Ankara, Turkey - Turkey marked the 83rd anniversary of its foundation Sunday, but fears that its strictly secular system is under mounting threat clouded celebrations, underscored by an embargo slapped on veiled women at a top presidential reception.
In a message marking the anniversary, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer described secularism as "the cornerstone" of the sweeping reforms, unique in the Muslim world, that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk launched after he proclaimed the Turkish Republic on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire October 29, 1923.
"Making concessions from the gains and principles of the Turkish Republic is unthinkable," he said.
A NATO member and a candidate for European Union membership, Turkey has come closer to the West than any other Muslim country.
A staunch advocate of secularism, Sezer has refused to invite women wearing the Islamic headscarf to a traditional reception given at his palace every October 29 since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002.
The headscarf, which the secularist establishment sees as a symbol of political Islam, is banned in public offices and universities in Turkey.
Since most ruling party MPs are practicing Muslims and their wives wear the headscarf, infuriated AKP members have responded by boycotting Sezer's receptions, which are the top event in Ankara's social calendar.
Undaunted by the protests, the president maintained the same stringent dress code this year and very few of AKP's 355 parliament members were likely to turn up at the party on Sunday evening, newspapers said.
Reports said that Sezer went a step further this year, refusing to invite deputies who had in the past returned his invitations to protest over the snubbing of their veiled wives.
Some of them expressed hope that the controversy will end next year when Sezer's seven-year term expires. The election of his successor will be made by the AKP-dominated parliament.
"Next year I'll go to the reception running because the people's president will invite us," AKP deputy Abdullah Cantimur told the Vatan daily.
Erdogan's wife Emine is among the women snubbed, but he has attended the receptions alone.
Vatan splashed on its front page a picture of Ataturk, clad in a frock coat, dancing at an October 29 ball in the 1930s, surrounded by men and women in posh western attire.
Echoing the sentiment of the westernized elite, the daily wrote: "The balls are long forgotten. The discussion today is whether veiled women will go to the reception next year ... This is the point Ataturk's Turkey has reached in 83 years!"
The AKP, the offshoot of a now-banned Islamist party, says that it supports the secular system, but argues that the interpretation of secularism is too hardline and restricts religious freedoms.
The party, however, is accused of seeking to raise the profile of Islam in public life and has come under harsh criticism from the president and the influential military for not doing enough to protect the secular system.
In his October 29 message, army chief Yasar Buyukanit renewed a warning against "a serious threat by reactionary movements aimed at eradicating Turkey's secular and democratic system and the gains of its progress."
In May, Turkey was rattled when a Muslim extremist killed a senior judge at a top administrative court to avenge the headscarf ban, triggering accusations that government policies are emboldening extremists.
Some analysts, however, say that warnings of a mounting Islamist threat are exaggerated and aim to pressure Erdogan into abstaining from running to succeed Sezer as president next year.