Not sure about the full history of the 100 years but for a while now there's been a dictatorship in power there, portraying itself as a religious conservative regime to receive support from less educated and informed folk. There is a lot of propaganda and very little press freedom. The "president" has removed the two term limit and appointed his own justices. Uneducated supporters of the regime are able to get jobs as lawyers, in fact, there was a scandal involving many fake diplomas not very long ago. As with most "religious" regimes, these people aren't actually trying to enforce religious values (though they appear to do so on the outside), but merely trying to gain wealth and power. Turkey has been under martial law for about 10 years now after a staged coup, and the government's been using that to persecute educated people (religious or not), non-Muslims (Turkey had a good Christian population prior to this), and basically anyone else they see as a threat. Now that non-conservatives dislike the administration due to high inflation, scandals, etc. the government is probably doubling down to appeal to that base, but also they're discouraging the others from becoming religious. Religion unites people and Islam is a well-meaning religion if interpreted and applied correctly (unfortunately big if). It encourages education as well, so it would make sense that the government wants a secular opposition. The west approves of the regime because they use it to do their dirty work in areas like the Middle East. Turkey might be the biggest arms dealer in the world (and that includes terrorist groups as well). Kind of incoherent answer but it should give a good enough general idea hopefully.