“Uniting around our common Islamic identity is the only way to solve the Kurdish problem,” argues one AK leader. “Islam bound us in Ottoman times and during the war of independence, why not today?” Religion has become the mildly Islamist AK's most potent weapon as it seeks to snatch control of Diyarbakir, the unofficial capital of Turkey's estimated 14m Kurds, from the pro-Kurdish Democratic People's Party (DTP) in next year's local election.

Turkey's richest Islamic fraternity is helping the AK to win more Kurdish votes. Named after Fetullah Gulen, a liberal Muslim cleric who lives in self-imposed exile in America, the Gulenists distributed meat to some 60,000 families during the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice in December. Scores of Gulenist doctors are offering free check-ups and treatment in Kurdish areas. Their message is that Turks and Kurds are brothers in Islam and that nationalism, whether Turkish or Kurdish, is bad.