UPDATED: Turk parliament debates headscarf, secularists rally
Landmark reform
Turkey's parliament resoundingly approved controversial constitutional changes aimed at lifting a ban on female students wearing the Muslim headscarf in universities, the assembly's speaker said.
Lawmakers backed the amendments by 411 votes for to 103 against after lengthy and often emotional debate on an issue that has deeply split the overwhemingly Muslim but secular nation.
Turkey's old secular elite, which includes army generals, judges and university rectors, fears the lifting of the ban will boost the role of religion and undermine the secular system of government founded by Kemal Ataturk in the 1920s.
Tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated a few km (miles) from the parliament in Ankara today against the changes in the second anti-headscarf rally to be held in the Turkish capital in just a week. "We are against lifting this ban, we do not want to live in a religious state," said Ebru Okay, 32, who had travelled from the Aegean city of Izmir to join today's rally in Ankara. "The state and religion must remain separate." Secularists fear the changes will push Turkey away from Europe and turn it into a more Middle Eastern-style country.