Turkey's secular establishment - including the military, the judiciary and the main Opposition party - see the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK) control of the last stronghold of secularism, the Presidency, as part of a wider Islamist plan to slowly erode the country's secular makeup.

The secular elite fear that the President will automatically give the nod to all AK legislation, thus opening the door to a host of potential Islamist laws.

These fears are epitomised by the fact that Abdullah Gül's wife wears a headscarf, which leading Secular figures regard as a symbol of backwardness.

Not only are they absolutely convinced that this would look anti-modern to the wider world, but leading secularists also regard it as a potentially very damaging influence on wider Turkish society. They are convinced, for example, that it might lead to a resurgence of Turkish women wearing traditional Islamic dress and following religious Muslim customs, which the Establishment is very wary of.

Yet, the indications so far are that the entrenched fears of this element of Turkish society are largely unfounded.

Although Turkey's leaders do have Islamic roots, the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Mr Gül, who is the country's long-serving Foreign Minister, have done little or nothing to suggest that they have a secret Islamist agenda.

In reality, the Prime Minister and his party have pledged to espouse secularism, and AK has spent much of its time in Government pushing social and human rights reforms that were actually demanded by the European Union in order to ensure Turkey's future membership.

By looking at the recent election results and opinion poll findings, it appears that much of the Turkish public do not buy into the fears of the secularist elite either.

The Government won a record 47 per cent mandate last month in early elections, and a new opinion poll found that AK has now increased its support to 54 per cent. The elections were called after a dispute between the secular elite and the Government over the Presidency.

As a result of the public's support for the ruling party and little appetite for a conflict, few expect the army to directly intervene and overthrow the Government this time, even though the military has ousted four Governments since the 1960s.

It is ironic that today's landmark events coincide with Thursday's Victory Day celebrations, which are a military-led holiday marking the victory of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the War of Independence after the First World War. This led to the creation of the secular Turkish state from the remains of the Ottoman Empire.

The day has traditionally been host to nation-wide military parades and events. This year, the military is likely to take the opportunity to give a series of speeches which issue coded warnings about the danger posed to Turkey's secular nature.

It will also take the opportunity to snub members of the Government whenever it can at events the military has organised, as it has traditionally done, and in particular the headscarf-wearing wives of AK party leaders. The most prominent of these, of course, will be the President's wife.

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