DIYARBAKIR (Turkey): In the heartland of Turkey's southeast, plagued by decades of conflict between separatist Kurdish rebels and the state, a new threat to secularism is emerging -- Islamist groups.

Local politicians say these organisations are becoming more active in the poor region that borders Iraq and Syria, and some fear this could fan fundamentalism, especially among young people who have grown up with violence.

As in the rest of predominantly Sunni Turkey, practising one's religion here long took a backseat to a public espousal of the secularism of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the republic's founder.

However, since the AK Party, which has roots in political Islam, swept to power in 2002, Muslims are now being more open about their faith.

"We feel much freer to practise Islam," said Engin Aydin, a teacher and physics graduate who was selling religious books near Diyarbakir's 11th century Ulu Cami mosque. "It's getting better by the day."

In the southeast's largest city, mosques are welcoming more worshippers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with a religious overtone are helping the poor and the number of unofficial prayer rooms is on the rise, say politicians and lawyers.

"In every poor neighbourhood, new radical Islamic associations are giving hot food, they have meetings at people's homes. They pay for students to go to school," said Firat Anli, Mayor of a district of Diyarbakir and member of the main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP).

"I'm very worried ... I fear they'll become more powerful and could turn to violence like the (Turkish) Hezbollah," he said, referring to a defunct armed group, active in the 1990s.

The role of religion in daily life has become a political hot potato as Turkey prepares for a general election next year, and as entry talks with the European Union reach a critical point. Brussels is due to release a progress report on Nov. 8, and is expected to conclude the reform process has slowed.

Tensions between the AK Party and the army, which sees itself as the guardian of the secularist system and resents EU criticism that it should stay out of politics, have intensified.

The powerful military has warned that Islamic fundamentalism rather than Kurdish separatism is the new threat to Turkey.

Demonstrations in favour of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, a regular event in Diyarbakir, have been replaced by pro-Islam rallies.

"There are more religious events now, there are tents collecting money for Palestinians and Lebanese causes," said Esra Likic, a 21-year-old student, at Diyarbakir's new mall.

"Young people are being tempted into radical Islam and very few people really keep a check on what the groups actually do."

The AK Party says this activity is not a threat.

"These (religious) groups are not dangerous for us, they live in Turkey. We have to find ways to allow them to express themselves ... even if these people are at the far side," said Diyarbakir's AK Party chairman Abdurrahman Kurt.

Many local politicians are concerned by the rise of legal but shadowy NGOs like Mustazaflar, meaning "the downtrodden", which made headlines by organising a protest attended by more than 80,000 people against cartoons of the holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Mustazaflar leader and lawyer Ishak Saglam declined to comment, saying only that his association would comment once its projects were finished. He gave no further details.

Locals say security forces have in the past turned a blind eye to illegal groups such as the Turkish Hezbollah, which sought to set up a theocracy, hoping they would weaken the PKK.

Muslim Brotherhood, mostly non-violent, was banned by Ataturk but they have slowly re-emerged over the years.

One of Turkey's most influential Muslim orders, the Nakshibendi, is technically illegal but active, said human rights lawyer and Diyarbakir Bar Association head Sezgin Tanrikulu. The Nurcu order is another movement gaining followers.

—Reuters