ISTANBUL — As a university student coming to Turkey, I knew there was a chance of encountering today’s incarnation of the brutal and bloody struggle for this country’s soul. While I had that knowledge, I never thought I would actually see it. When I saw it, it took me a few hours to comprehend what actually took place. Here I will relay to you what I saw, what I think it means and why it is important. This is not simple subject matter to write about and I do not claim to be an expert in any way on the topic. I can only record and observe. The following is just that.

Monday marked the first day of classes and started as you would expect. I woke up, checked where I was going, grabbed a notebook and headed down to campus. As I approached, I saw a large gathering next to the entrance and wondered if I was going to have to wait on line to get in. Already late, I blew by the crowd, nodded at security and started down to class. About 10 seconds later, the crowd went up in an angry chant and began clapping their hands at a vehicle entering campus.

It was early in the morning and I was low on sleep from the night before but it didn’t take much to register that I had just crossed a picket line. Things started to hit me quickly but I still needed to get to class — so off I went, forgetting the whole thing.

Didn’t take long for the issue to be placed front and center once again. After handing out the syllabus, one of my professors looked out at the class and said “Some people, some of you, were not allowed into campus today.” As a tense quiet came over the room she explained that the University was not letting in women with headscarves anymore. If the policy continued, she said, she was going to move the class outside the gate. Visibly disturbed, she went on to outline the semester and then dismissed us.

Bogazici University, which I attend, has always been known for its progressive policies and inclusiveness. I spoke to a shaken girl on the way home from classes who told me that in her four years at the school she had never had this happen to her. But this summer was a turbulent one and the issue of the headscarf was at the fore.

It all started this past February where the ruling AK party, a conservative group whose leadership comes from now defunct Islamic parties, proposed to lift a longstanding ban on headscarves in universities. The policy was deemed to interfere with the secular nature of the state and was overruled by the courts in early June.

Lifting the ban on headscarves was seen as a serious offense by the secular establishment (which operates through the powerful military and the court system) and charges were brought against the AK party seeking to ban them from Turkish politics completely.

This showdown meant everything for Turkey. If the party was banned, it would mean that Turkey was still not ready to entrust its civilian government with the power to rule and, after much progress, would revert back to its 1980 form. Back then, power was seized by the army and a new restricting constitution drawn up in response to a shaky political situation. If the party was not banned, however, it would mean Turkey had taken a tremendous step in the way of democratization and would now be one step closer towards EU membership and normalcy as a nation.

In the end, the AK party did win the case and still controls parliament but not without feeling the effects of a judicial bullet sailing right past its head. They likely will not try to legislate on issues similar to the headscarf one for quite some time.

This summer was also an interesting one here at Bogazici. The Rector went up for election and, perhaps due to student protests the semester before, was replaced by a new Kemalist (secularist) candidate.

All this ended up on my doorstep Monday as I watched scores of young women wrapped in their scarves recoil at the fact that they were not being granted entry to their own school. The summer’s events had sent a sharp message to the people of Turkey that the country was not going to let its secular character be picked apart without a fight. When it came down to it, Bogazici got the message too and went along with the law.

Many on campus here feel that the move was a correct one. This is the Turkish Republic, they say, and Turkey is unique because of its secularism — that should not be compromised. Also, many have claimed that in a region such as this, Islamization can happen rapidly and that barriers must be put up to ensure against it.

While these argugments may be valid, I cannot agree with them. To exclude people from education due to religious practice is something I find personally hard to stomach, much harder when those excluded belong sitting next to me in class. And so, while I will continue to walk the grounds of this fantastic university and take part in her lectures, I will be looking at those empty seats wondering if one day this country will be strong enough to make the right decision.

Alex Kantrowitz, a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, will report this semester from Istanbul, Turkey. For further coverage, check out his blog at http://smokedturkey.wordpress.com. Alex can be contacted at amk83@cornell.edu. Smoked Turkey appears alternate Thursdays this semester.