Marking July 15, let's not institutionalize polarization in Turkey

Until the coming to office of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002, one can fairly say that Turkey's national days, putting aside Oct. 29 Republic Day, had basically turned into occasions for holidays, rather than special days when people celebrated Republican values.

Generally speaking, April 23, National Sovereignty and Children Day, marking the inauguration of the Turkish Parliament in 1920; May 19, Atatürk, Youth and Sport Day, marking the date in 1919 when Atatürk set foot in the city of Samsun to start the war of liberation; and Aug. 30 Victory Day, marking the success of the military assault in 1922 saving Turkey from foreign occupation, had until 2002 rather lost their meaning.  

Because Turkey's former ruling elites often used these days to underline the secular nature of the Republic, these celebrations did not always appeal to the conservative masses. Resentful of certain practices like the headscarf ban, which some saw as an assault on their religious way of life, some felt like they were being forced to celebrate certain values that they did not totally endorse.

A "headscarf crisis" erupted in the first April 23 celebration organized by the AKP after it came to power. The wife of the host of the reception, then parliament speaker Bülent Arınç, wore a headscarf and was unable to attend. Arınç was only able to solve the crisis by saying his wife would not attend the reception.
The "military discipline" nature of the celebrations may also have played a role in their lack of popularity. This had also started to irritate secular masses, annoyed by the lack of creativity in the copy-paste style of repetitions each year. 

Of course, it did not have to be like that. Making April 23 an "international children's...