We are in Turkey this week filming the April edition of Inside the Middle East.

As most journalists do, I got my first taste of what was on people's minds here on my drive from the Airport to our hotel in central Istanbul.

"They're suing the government to ban the AK Party," our local production assistant told me.
She was referring to the March 14th case brought by Turkey's chief prosecutor against the country's ruling "Justice and Democracy" party.

The lawsuit argues that the part of Prime Minister Erdogan is pushing "anti-secular ideas" on the population of Turkey. This, the case argues, goes against the republic of Turkey's secular ideals and its strict separation between religion and government.

You could argue that this is the most pressing issue in this country today: can Islam and democracy live side by side? A question facing Turkey and so many other Muslim nations around the world.

Issues such as the lifting of the ban on headscarves in publicly funded universities are giving some observers reason to think that Turkey's increasingly devout Muslim population is moving against a trend of modernism. Is the going against the founding ideal of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk?


Others say that the Turkish experiment is actually working: GDP per capita is up sharply here in the years since the AK party has been in power and the economy is producing more billionaires than ever before.

But is the economy the only measure of progress here?

Speaking of billionaires, one of the stories we will be bringing to viewers in April is a profile of Husnu Ozyegin, on the Turkey's richest men (a man who just may have stopped counting his billions years ago). But he is not only a hard-headed businessman; he has already spent $50 million of his own money to fund schools in poor rural areas of Turkey.

A billionaire with a penchant for the humanitarian?

He has said in the past that he is passionate about bringing education to poorer Turks and empowering young girls through education. We will be following him to remote areas of the country where his millions have funded 36 elementary schools.

Watch this space for more stories and reports from Turkey this week including a closer look at the headscarf controversy, the Kurdish question and the West's worries about Turkish military activity in Northern Iraq.