religion in Turkey

Religion and Secularism in Turkey

Turkey lies at the northeast tip of the Mediterranean Sea and bridges Europe and the Middle East. Part of it, called the Turkis Straits, is part of Europe and the rest is considered part of the Middle East or Asia. Only 8% of the population and 3% of the land are in the Europe side while 97% of the land and 92% of the people are on the Middle East portion. Turkey measures approximately 780,000 square kilometers. It is divided into 80 provinces with Ankara as the capital and Istanbul as the largest city. The modern Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal, who was designated as Father Turk by the Grand National Assembly. Kemal was an accomplished military officer under the Ottomans. His military capabilities and political magnetism enabled him to outlast the fallen Ottoman Empire. He advocated for the partitioning of Turkey with the Allied Forces and established the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923.

Kemal set up the foundations for a strong nation-state yet allowed repressive practices to seep in against the freedom of the press, which survive to this day. He put into place the necessary reforms to make Turkey a secular state. He abolished the constitutional provision, which decreed Islam as the state religion and the caliphate, which symbolized the Sultanate's religious authority. He removed the rest of Islamic institutions. He replaced these with Western laws, practices and principles. He introduced the use of the Latin calendar and alphabet. In 1934, Turkish women received the right to vote. He took steps and reforms not only to secularize Turkey but also open it to European influences. The reforms were so massive that his influence came to be regarded as an ideology. Its guiding principles, however, were described as chaotic and contradictory. By 1926, Kemal ruled as an autocrat through the support of landowners, the bourgeoisie and the civil and military bureaucracies. Their cooperation silenced all opposition. Nonetheless, his rule brought stability in the newly-founded country until its membership with the United Nations in 1945 and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO in 1952. Both were in tune with the objective of Europeanizing Turkey. Kemal was the ruler of Turkey for 14 years, re-elected in 1927, 1931 and 1935. He died in 1938.

Kemal transformed Turkey into a secular state where religious belief would be a matter of individual and personal conscience. In this secular state, he made both the huge Muslim majority and the tiny Christian and Jewish minorities free to practice their respective religious beliefs without fear. He ordered the translation of the Quran into Turkish for ordinary people to read and understand for themselves rather than rely on the interpretation of mullahs. Among the consequences of this new order were the replacement of the Shariah law with a modern, secular justice system, the abolition of polygamy and Muslim women's option to marry non-Muslim men. Civil divorce replaced the Muslim practice of "repudiation." Under this old practice, a Muslim man could terminate a marriage by simply declaring to the woman, "I divorce you." The secularization of Turkey decriminalized apostasy. Adults could change their religion. Women were granted legal equality with men, including suffrage and the right to hold government office and work in business. Primary education, prominently of girls, was compulsory. The Father Turk changed Turkey's standards from Arabic to European. He caused the replacement of Arabic script by the Roman alphabet and the Islamic calendar with the Western or Gregorian calendar and the adoption of the metric system. Moreover, he initiated an economic development program, which would expand agriculture and advance industry and technology.

Kemal was an advocate of 18th century Enlightenment and liberal philosophers, like Voltaire and John Stuart Mill. He believed that the truest guide to civilization, success and life itself consisted of knowledge and science. He stressed that Turkey needed to catch up with the Western world. He viewed the teachings of Enlightenment as universal values and Turkey's ultimate goal was to accept these values. He rejected the assumption that the East and the West could not meet. Rather, he insisted that universal secular values and mutual respect would be the meeting ground between the East and the West. He believed that nationalism and peace were compatible and saw human reason as the only true guide in life. His vision for Turkey was a blending of patriotism and a lofty humanist ideal. Progressive thinkers all over the world agreed with him. He changed the structure of Turkey from top to bottom. But his secular ideal did not gain the vote of the Turkish people.

At the start of Kemal's rule, most of the Turks were illiterate, subsistence farmers, who were subjected to an absolute imperial sultan. Some liberal historians felt that his kind of rule was what his people needed at the time. Kemal's rule was described as a benevolent dictatorship, which was deemed the only possible government at that time. His program of secularization and modernization limited some individual freedoms, prominently the wearing of the fez in public. Muslim men traditionally wore the brimless fez so that they could bring their forehead to the ground when they prayed. He banned the wearing of the veil by women in public as a sign that they were equal with men. He also encouraged the formation of opposition parties but later on banned them when they felt that these would delay the progress of his reforms. While he praised the freedom of the press as a fundamental feature of liberty, he also censored criticisms of his progressive reforms.

The secular state, which developed out of the concept of the Father Turk, continues to flourish today. Current-day Turkey is moderately prosperous, rich in culture and the most democratic country in the Middle East. It remains the most strictly secular nation, which guarantees freedom of religion and belief. For almost a century, the Republic of Turkey has made greater progress than any other nation with a similarly and predominantly Muslim population. Turkey has achieved this without needing to produce oil like other Middle East countries. But contradictions to Father Turk's kind of enlightened despotism also remain and produce problems. For one thing, the military has kept tight watch of it. Effective multiparty democracy was established in 1950. But political corruption, threats to political integrity and strong apprehension towards Islamic fundamentalism have prompted the military to frequently intervene with the democratic process. The Turkish constitution allows the military to intervene in any major aspects of government. Three military coups between 1960 and 1980 were, therefore, not unexpected. The Kurdish Workers Party or PKK, on the other hand, staged a military insurrection in the southeast part of Turkey. The members wanted to create an independent Kurdish state. The conflict stretched to more than 10 years and claimed the lives of more than 23,000 guerillas, 5,000 Turkish soldiers and 9,000 civilians. The PKK sought greater cultural and political rights, which the Turkish government continues to deny. The government still regards its critics as enemies of the Turkish sovereignty. It was not surprising, then, that an Islamic political party, called Welfare, in the 1990s, expressed doubts that secularism would last long in Turkey. The military's constraint over the activities of the group was viewed as demonstrating the limits of democracy in the country. The voting public gave only up to 21% endorsement of the Welfare's objective. Its successor group, the Virtue, was not even as strong. It was said that only 7 or 8% of Turkish voters were Muslims. Most of the votes for the Islamist parties came from reform-directed young minds. These young minds were disgusted with current parties and would want to take a chance with the Welfare. They did not think it would incur too much risk with the presence and capability of the military in times when it had to intervene.

Many Turks still view Islam as incompatible with Western philosophy. Some Muslim fundamentalists and some Muslim intellectuals even consider the idea of democracy and secularism detrimental and inimical to the very dogma of Islam. There are Muslims and non-Muslims in Turkey. Among the Muslim sects were the Alevis and the Shias whose observances and practices were not all alike. Most of the non-Muslims lived in Istanbul and other large cities. Among them were Armenian Orthodox Christians, Jews, Syrian Orthodox Christians, Yezidies, Greek Orthodox Christians and a few Nestorians. These religious minorities came under the regulation of the government agency, the Office of Foundations. This office approved all the operations of churches, monasteries, religious hospitals, schools, orphanages and other similar groups. The Christian population in Turkey was said to be declining. Religious minorities, which could no longer support property, would have to lose it to the state. Secularism is among the basic pillars of the Turkish Republic. It is central to the Constitution of 1982 and its predecessors. It draws from the principle of freedom of religion and conscience as set forth in Article 24. It thus assures everyone of the "freedom of conscience, religious beliefs and conviction," limited only by the abuse of people's fundamental rights and freedoms." The Constitution allows rites of worship and religious services and ceremonies. It protects people from being compelled to worship and participate in these religious rites against their will. It forbids the exploitative use of religion, religious feelings or things held sacred for personal or political influence. It insures that one can change his religion or belief by himself or as a group, privately or publicly. The Constitution has these guarantees to freedom of religion or worship. Yet, and at the same time, it obliges the state to provide Sunni Muslim religious education in the elementary and secondary schools. This was seen as contradicting the principles of a modern, secular state. It compelled Christian and Jewish children to receive a Sunni Muslim religious education and opposed the philosophies of liberalism, human rights and religious freedom. It particularly affected Syriac Christians on account of the Treaty of Lausanne, which did not recognize them as a minority religious group.

Another problem concerned Islamic brotherhoods, denominations and sects. Islamic brotherhoods had a prominent place in the social, economic, and political life in Turkey from the Ottoman Empire to the current Republic. Their convents, monasteries and lodges were the seats and centers of culture and education in the country. But by the end of the 18th century, social corruption transformed these centers into locales of conspiracy. When the Republic was founded in 1923, the funds of the brotherhoods were confiscated and their operations suppressed. The state justified its action on account of the brotherhoods' support of the Ottoman Empire during the War of Independence. It saw these centers as breeding places of unrest. Although suppressed and technically illegal, these brotherhoods remained in existence and continued to affect social and political life in Turkey. These brotherhoods were the Naksibendiliks, Kadirliks, Rifailiks, Nurculuks, Suleymanciliks, Isikciliks, Mevleviliks, Bektashsiliks, and Aleviliks. These groups encountered financial problems and problems involving the internal structures of religious groups and marriage. The Directorate of Religious Affairs organized and regulated the religious lives of Muslim believers. The government provided this agency with an annual national budget for the functions. These illegal brotherhoods did not receive state support and had to obtain th money they needed from their respective communities. Neither did non-Muslims receive any state funding and likewise needed the same support from their communities for their existence and activities. As to their internal structures, the Directorate likewise made the decisions on the appointments of imams and muftis. On the other hand, the leaders of illegal brotherhoods were selected and confirmed through the general consent of their members. And as regards marriage, only civil marriage had legal status. Couples who acquired civil marriage where, however, allowed to conduct a religious marriage ceremony of their choice. The Turkish government allowed marriage between religious groups. Children from these marriages were given the right to choose their own religion upon reaching the age of 18. Until then, they had to obtain their parents' joint agreement on the matter.

Most critics had expected that the modernization of Turkey would dampen religious fervor, but it resulted in something else. The processes of modernization instead transformed traditional Islamic beliefs and groups and drove them into public frontlines. The elections of November 2002 voted the Justice and Development Party or AK into power. It became Turkey's first openly Islamic political group. This meant that religion and politics could not be separated in Turkey or elsewhere. The Turks' strong religious sentiments and attachment should have been harmonized with the requirements of its secular society. The Turkish Republic was, however, differently conceived and built. Kemal instituted a series of reforms, which would create a modern nation-state. Instead of adopting a neutral position on religious practices, the secular state sought to eliminate all manifestations of religion from the public and place them under the control of the state. The Turkish Constitutional Court decided that peace would be achieved if all forms of ethnic religious differences would be uprooted. It viewed religious claims as divisive and dangerous to the welfare and peace of society. The Kemal Republic was an intellectual and political experiment in Turkey, which differentiated, marginalized and excluded large groups in its society. In effect, the twin pillars of the Republic, Turkish nationalism and secularism, became the main sources of problems and crises rather than peace and welfare. Instead, it attempted to be an authoritarian state ideology, which would weed out religious and ethnic differences in instituting Enlightenment principles and values. The history of the conflict between religion and secularism in Turkey was the story of the struggle between a state-imposed modernization and a people's resistance. It was a contest between the political elite behind the state and the people's group driven by a fight for their religious beliefs. The state outlawed both Islamic and Kurdish identity claims. The elite used secularism to consolidate its power in society and grab power from potential centers of opposition behind the pretense of a love for science and progress. It used secularism as a strategy of exclusion and instrument of oppression. Despite its huge efforts at modernization, Islam in Turkey was not suffocated but only escaped into the public sphere. It took the form of public groups, which had different reactions to what Turkey had become. Some rejected modern Turkey. Some sought to escape from it. Some others attempted to fit their religious beliefs into the demands of the modern world. Those who rejected modernity and secularism were called "fundamentalists." Some of these groups reacted violently, while others did so peacefully. There were also religious Muslims who abandoned politics in order to shield themselves from the effects of secularism. These developments produced two opposite views of secularism in Turkey. One view held that it was authoritarian in that secularism was a system of controlling religion and subjecting it to the state. The other view held that it was pluralist in that it required a neutral state and a new tolerance for Islamic expressions and institutions in Turkish society. Religion should not be expelled by force from public life. The current role played by Islamic groups in Turkey's media, schools and businesses illustrates its potential in developing a new and truly more liberal society.

The Nur movement of Fethullah Gullen, the largest and most influential in Turkey, illustrated how huge efforts at secularization instead led to the formation of groups in the public sphere. Gulen held that Islam empowers Muslims to decide how they should live within a democratic system. The movement changed the institutional location of Islamic authority from the mosque to the media, from ulama to public thinkers and intellectuals. The movement brought Islam back to the public by merging Islamic idioms with concepts and discourses on human rights, democracy and market economy with the outside world.

Father Turk's vision was to turn Turkey into a modern, prosperous and secular state and as part of the European mainstream. One gigantic event, which pushed the vision closer to fulfillment, was when the European Union named Turkey as an official candidate for membership in December 1999. It would take at least a decade before it could attain full membership. Simply being an official candidate was already an accomplishment. But before this event, leading European politicians asserted that Turkey's Muslim culture and heritage would prevent it from becoming part of Europe. The European Union requires it to fulfill political and economic requirements for membership. Among these were to subject its military to civilian control, give its citizen the right to individual cultural expression, and guarantee complete freedom of the press. The foundation of the Turkish government opposed these goals. But critics believed that if the Turkish government turned around and fulfilled these goals, Father Turk's dream for Turkey would, in fact, finally come true. He would then become a national hero. Becoming a member-nation of the EU would put Turkey in equal rank with countries, which tried to colonize it in the past. Turkey could then openly and justly claim to guarantee freedom, stability and prosperity. Its membership would also become an advantage to the EU. Turkey has one of the youngest and largest populations in the Continent. It had almost 70 million people, 2/3 of which was less than 35 years old. This young and energetic population could contribute fresh vigor to the European Union in reaching out to the nations of the South and the East. More than this, Turkey could set an example to 56 predominantly Muslim countries that Islam could coexist with democracy and modernity. When this happens, Kemal would be one of the most influential figures of the current century.