I KNOW Turkey is secular yet I heard some other Muslim counties such as Syria is secular as well.
This is not just being secular they are different from middle eastern Muslims(and ofc I know turkey is in not Middle East). They look and act like Europeans. I asked them why they can't join EU, they answered "we don't want to join it, only government wants it" why not? They look pretty European to me.
Turkey is quite a bipolar society, divided into western-oriented secular people, and those who are more religious and conservative. The former are quite happy to 'wear short skirts', drink beer, etc.; whereas the latter observe Islamic rules, at least to some extent and at least in public. As I'm sure you realise, your forty friends is such a tiny sample, out of a population of nearly 80 million, that you cannot generalise from it. Go and ask the prime minister what he thinks of mini skirts and beer drinking.
Fortunately (IMO) Turkey remains constitutionally secular, at least for the time being, so people can live their lives as they wish (more or less). Those who prefer to wear short skirts can do so, while those to prefer to cover their heads can also do so. It's not Iran or Saudi Arabia, after all.
It's the bright and modern people living in Western Turkey who came from other places in the last two centuries including what's known as today Crimea, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosova, Bosnia and such.
Turkey is a country that not interfere with people's private lives, is a secular country.
Well Turkey isn't a Muslim country so that sets it apart from all the Muslim countries.
We are not muslim country. We are secular so we can drink or smoke.
turkey is multi-cultural.
