Spotlight: Nightclub attack reveals deepening rift in Turkish society

The shooting attack against a popular night club where crowds celebrated the New Year in Istanbul revealed the rising polarization in Turkish society, with some fanning the flames of tension between secularists and Islamists.

Tweets following the brutal attack exposed the hatred felt toward the victims as "revellers" ringing in the New Year.

Days before Dec. 31, the pro-government Islamist media published reports that New Year celebrations were denounced as un-Islamic.

"Societal polarization has reached a very dangerous level in Turkey, to an extent that many people find themselves ontologically threatened due to their secular lifestyles," observed Ayhan Kaya, a Turkish politics and European studies professor at the European University Institute in Firenze, Italy.

"There is a growing risk of an ontological clash in Turkey," added Kaya, who also taught at Istanbul's Bilgi University until last summer.

Both the ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) and opposition parties have called on the public to unite against terrorism, condemning the terrorist attack as well as the hate speech spreading throughout social media.

An investigation of 347 social media accounts was launched for sharing such comments, government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus told reporters on Monday.

Kurtulmus said that one of the aims of the terrorist attack is to create a divide in society bringing lifestyle choices and religious issues to the forefront.

Turkey, a secular republic under its Constitution, has for long been deeply divided between secularism and Islamism.

Several members of the heterodox Alevi Islamic sect which advocates a secular way of life, are feeling increasingly alienated in the AKP-ruled Turkey.

The attack against Istanbul's Reina nightclub, which killed 39 people, is a first of its kind in Turkey as it targeted a specific lifestyle, said Akif Hamzacebi, a parliament member and deputy speaker from the secularist main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

A male tweeted on his twitter account claiming that people celebrating the New Year are not Muslims and that he doesn't feel the least bit sorry for those massacred.

He even added that he hoped the death toll would increase.

The attack, believed to have been was carried out by a lone gunman thought to be from Kyrgyzstan, also left dozens wounded, four in critical condition.

The assailant, after killing a policeman and another person at the night club's entrance, entered the popular club frequented by celebrities, artists, football stars and tourists and then randomly opened fired at the hundreds of people partying inside.

"Those with a Muslim identity deserve to get killed if they celebrate the New Year," said another tweet.

"Islamist vilification of New Year's celebrations involving singing, dancing and drinking - in other words all the things that normal civilized people around the world do on this occasion - had fouled the already tense atmosphere in Turkey," wrote Semih Idiz, a columnist with the Hurriyet daily news.

"What could be the main aim of the Reina massacre? There could be 80 aims, but the most basic one is inciting hatred between people who celebrate the New Year and those who don't," added Ahmet Hakan, another columnist with the daily.

The merciless assault was claimed by the Islamic State (IS), which the Turkish military has been fighting against in northern Syria since last August.

Any ties between anti-New Year articles in the pro-government media and the Reina attack are being widely dismissed by the public as out of the question, given that Turkey's Islamist press had previously printed similar reports ahead of New Year in recent years.

This time, however, the number of such reports increased.

"There is a deepening gap between people with a more religious, conservative life-style and people with a more secular way of life," said Bican Sahin, political science professor at Hacettepe University in Ankara.

The AKP has been in power for over 14 years and its Islamist discourse tone has become more pronounced in recent years.

Imams in over 80,000 mosques across Turkey preached during their Friday sermons against celebrating the New Year based on a text issued by the country's top religious authority, The Directorate of Religious Affairs.

The Directorate of Religious Affairs issued a sermon describing celebrations of the New Year as illegitimate and unfit for Muslims.

Sahin, also president of the Ankara-based Freedom Research Association, said it is unfortunate that a religious authority would issue a sermon critical of a way of life.

Noting that state authorities cannot favor one way of life over another in a secular state, he said, "If they do so, they would be discriminating and undermining the basis of peaceful coexistence of differences."

Mehmet Gormez, head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, strongly condemned the terrorist attack in a written statement on Monday, describing it as "savage" and "horrendous."

In an apparent answer to comments on social media, the statement also underlined that there is no difference whether such a massacre was committed in a bazaar, a place of worship or an entertainment venue.

"The only nuance ... is that it aims to divide the nation and confront people with different lifestyles by inciting them," the statement added.

Should a civil war break out in Turkey in the future, heads of Alevi foundations would get killed, claimed Ozdemir Ozdemir, president of the Turkmen Alevi Bektashi Association, on Channel A television on Tuesday.

Ozdemir apologized later in a tweet for his remarks in response to rising reactions.

Alevis represent the country's major religious minority with an estimated population of 10 million and all of whom support secularism.

The AKP is pushing to replace Turkey's parliamentary system with a presidential one.

Many are concerned that adopting a presidential system would further polarize society.

The push for increased presidential powers is part of the AKP's plan to transform the country into a theocratic state and settle accounts with the secular republic, argued several pundits.

If the polarization persists, a civil war may break out in Turkey within four to five years, Ismail Hakki Pekin, a retired general who headed the Turkish General Staff's intelligence unit, warned several months ago on television.

Pekin also noted that around 6 to 7 percent of the country's population are radical extremist Muslims who support the IS.

Around 65 percent of Turkish voters chose right-wing parties, with the AKP currently the dominant one, while the rest support left-wing parties such as the CHP.

Furthermore, Kaya pointed out that an increasing number of politicians, intellectuals and media experts in Turkey are exploiting ethno-cultural and religious differences for their own political and economic interests. Endit