Remember, the military and secularists ran the country since the fall of the Caliphate for the most part. The secular folks (most non Muslims) are about 20% of the population.
What caused the rise of the AKP, its predecessor and the Gulen movement was the rise of the small and medium sized businesses that were owned by conservative Muslims from the interior of Turkey. This was driving growth since the 70s. They were based on manufacturing and high technology like electronics and IT, while the "secular" oligarchy had the old industries that were failing and were propped up by the government. These state owned enterprises were betted on by the secular elites and the military, safe to say they bet on the wrong horse.
Discrimination in the field of education also pushed the Muslims of Turkey to success, because they were forced to go into more difficult courses like engineering and science instead of law and business, and they were forced to send their children to foreign universities.
This is why you will find it more common for a Muslim in Turkey to be educated outside the country, work in multinational corporations and speak foreign languages,
While most secular Turks study inside the country and hardly speak any foreign languages.
Most of the time if you come across a Turk that speaks excellent English, he is a conservative Muslim, while your secularist would struggle with it. Also, even still today you will not be promoted as an officer, no matter how excellent you are if people see you pray regularly or avoid alcohol. The AKP have already removed the handicaps from the school system.
In the past you will be graded down a few percentiles if you studied in a school that teaches Islamic studies as a subject.
Even if it is an elective you would not be able to get into Military college at all..
Economic power leads to political power if you play the game right and this is what the AKP did. They used the application to join the EU to democratize and reduce the powers of the bureaucracy and the army giving more power to the people.
which was geniusI would also like to add that Kemal Ataturk did not introduce secularism into Turkey.
The Ottoman Empire was secular from 1843 till it expired in 1922. The 1853 laws removed the Jizya tax on non-Muslims, introduced interest based banking, removed the power of the Ulema, and moved all power to secular courts, leaving sharia only in family law. The laws from the same year legalized prostitution and implemented taxation of whorehouses and their regular medical checks. Homosexuality was also decriminalized. This was 1853
I don't think the AK party has the vision and drive and clarity of vision to move on from here, they will still try to merge two alien and opposite things, Islam and secular western identity and they will fail.
I expect them to be brought down by new enemies or they will transform into those they defeated earlier.
Erdogan just recently defeated the Gulen movement and their not so secret Saudi allies, but he had to resurrect some of the secularists in the army that were recently defanged and whipped into obedience to do this. The secularists in the army are now back somewhat and they are quietly bidding their time to strike.
Erdogan now needs to find a away to quickly push back the army's power yet again.
The Turks are lucky and should be thankful to the secularists for one thing. They have prevented the spread of the Wahhabi virus. Most Muslim countries before the 70s were like how Turkey is now and has been.
I've seen her around town