Thousands March in Turkish Capital

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, flanked by Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, left, speaks to the media as he leaves the Constitutional Court, hours after a gunman killed a prominent judge and injured four others in Turkey's highest administrative court in Ankara, Wednesday, May 17, 2006. Gunman, Alparslan Arslan, said that the attack was a retaliation for a recent ruling against a teacher who wore an Islamic-style headscarf, officials said.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) (Burhan Ozbilici - AP)

ANKARA, Turkey -- More than 15,000 Turks, including judges, lawyers and students, marched in the Turkish capital Thursday to condemn an attack by a suspected Islamist gunman that killed a judge and wounded four others.

The gunman who opened fire on the judges inside Turkey's highest administrative court on Wednesday told authorities his attack was retaliation for a recent ruling against a teacher who wore an Islamic-style headscarf. Police captured him after the attack and on Thursday detained two other people for questioning.

Judicial officials, academics and secular Turks, carrying Turkish flags, marched to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, in a show of loyalty to secularism Thursday. There they laid a wreath decorated with red and white carnations, the colors of the Turkish flag.

The march was broadcast live on several national televisions live. Some citizens were seen wiping tears from their eyes and kissing the marble stones of the mausoleum.

"Turkey is secular and it will remain secular," thousands chanted.

After the march, Turkey's top three courts, the Supreme Court, Council of State and Appeals Court issued a joint statement condemning the attack.

"This massacre attempt is directed against the secular republic. ... We strongly denounce it," said the statement read by Sumru Cortoglu, head of the Council of State. "This attack will not intimidate us."

The attack stoked tension between the secular establishment and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government, which has been trying to raise the profile of Islam in this predominantly Muslim but non-fundamentalist country.

Erdogan's government has made no secret of its desire to lift a ban on wearing head scarves in government buildings and universities and had strongly and openly criticized the court's decision in February against the promotion of an elementary school teacher who wore a head scarf outside of work.

The attack on the judges Wednesday was denounced by the country's secular establishment, including judges, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and the powerful military, which pressured a pro-Islamic government out of power in 1997.

Turkey's military, which staged three coups between 1960 and 1980, is deeply uncomfortable with the government's position on the head scarf issue and what it sees as a creeping Islamization of society.

"This is the Sept. 11 of the Turkish Republic," wrote Ertugrul Ozkok, chief columnist of Turkey's leading newspaper Hurriyet on Thursday. "One of the main pillars of the regime, justice, was being hit. This is an attack against all of us."