Turkey has had a culture of secularism since many years. The country, which is partly in the realms of Europe and partly in Asia believes in the separation of state and religion and call themselves as Europeans. Nevertheless the ruling AK party has deep Islamic roots in its ideology, a situation, which is not less than a menace for the Turkish masses as they purely believe in being citizens of a secular state that is not confined in any sense by religion-based fiats. However the opposition parties, who share this viewpoint of separation of religion and state, are not strong or for that matter, credible enough to compete with the ruling party. For instance, they let down their supporters by not agreeing to the prospect of a centre-left alliance. Meanwhile the opposition parties are still preoccupied with their struggle to get over the ghosts of their defeat in the elections held in 2002. Despite of the divergence in the ideology of the masses and the ideology of the AK party, it still remains the strongest political party in Turkey.
