ALB wrote:. Remember that the

Don't forget Erbakan, the islamist,(Freedom Party was it – i can't recall?) who was removed by the constitutional court at the behest of the military in spring of 1997. Around that time Erdoğan was the mayor of Istanbul and was ımprısoned for hıs speech quotıng relıgıous texts as metaphors and was seen as a threat to secularism.Also, important to remember is that it's not strictly urban/rural because so many Turks have moved fairly recently into towns/cities that you have a mixture totally different from UK urban/rural. It's too simplistic to view things as on a par to UK communities. What you do find , however, is that as you travel further into Anatolia – in general – the people are more conservative, and that doesn't necessarily mean more islamist, but more holding on to the old ways of thinking and doing .Many people are' believers' in a non-fundamentalist fashion but as to Islamisation in certain sectors the Gülen movement has infiltrated the police in a fairly big way. Fethullah Gülen was exiled nearly 20 years ago and lives in the US – in itself an interesting topic – calls himself an educator, a peace lover, and he has a pretty large following here. It is said that Erdoğan and Gül, the president are adherents of his but how can we know for sure?Another thing to be aware of is that government workers, police included do not take employment where they choose to be posted but are mostly working in areas that are some distance from their 'homeland' in a succession of postings through their working lives. This can mean that the police may be somewhat detached because they are not living in their home neighbouhoods.It's a very complex situation – 'nuff said for the moment.