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Understanding the Religion-Politics Nexus in Turkey. Continuities and Ruptures

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Exploring Islam beyond Orientalism and Occidentalism

Abstract

The question of whether the ‘new Turkey’ under the Justice and Development Party rule is still a model of secular Muslim country has been in the last decade an increasing concern to scholars and experts. By exploring the variation in the governance of religion in Turkey, this chapter argues that the Turkish state has not only governed religion since the establishment of the republic in 1923; it has also long governed an ethnically and religiously highly diverse population through religion, a fact that is often overlooked in the literature. Religion has been used by state elites as a tool to categorize peoples, to mobilize constituencies, and to contain political Islam and ethnic conflict. What is new especially since the early 2010s is the breadth and depth of the expansion of religion into social life with the backing of the state, particularly in the realms of education, family and law.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Gorski (2018) for a discussion on the orthodox and neo-orthodox models of the secularization paradigm, and its critiques.

  2. 2.

    See the PEW Research Center Report “Being Christian in Western Europe”: https://www.pewforum.org/2018/05/29/being-christian-in-western-europe/. Accessed: 30 June 2018.

  3. 3.

    See Asad (1993) for a genealogical account of religion that first emerged as an idea in the West, and was then applied as a universal concept often used to justify liberal politics.

  4. 4.

    See, for instance, Kuru and Stepan (2012).

  5. 5.

    See https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/16/rip-turkey-1921-2017/;

    https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2018/02/11/445620/turkey-experiencing-new-nationalism/. Accessed: 30 June 2018.

  6. 6.

    See, for example, Akan (2017), Azak (2010), Büyükokutan (2018), Mardin (1989), Navaro-Yashin (2002), Özgül (2014), Özyürek (2006), and Parla and Davison (2008).

  7. 7.

    The full text of the negotiations can be found in Lozan Barış Konferansı: Tutananaklar. Belgeler. Paris: Devlet Basımevi (translated by Seha L. Meray).

  8. 8.

    See Ünlü (2018) for a historical analysis of the transformation of what he describes as the ‘“Turkish Contract”’.

  9. 9.

    For a detailed discussion of the late-nineteenth/early-twentieth-century population politics that was driven by the idea of ‘unmixing’, see Weitz (2008).

  10. 10.

    Lozan Barış Konferansı: Tutananaklar. Belgeler. Paris: Devlet Basımevi (translated by Seha L. Meray).

  11. 11.

    On the 1934 riots, see Bali (2009); on the 1955 riots, see Kuyucu (2005). On the assassination of Hrant Dink, see Adar (2018) and Türkmen-Dervişoğlu (2013). On rights violations, see Oran (2004).

  12. 12.

    https://konda.com.tr/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/VatandaslikArastirmasiRapor.pdf. Accessed: 1 May 2017.

  13. 13.

    For a detailed analysis of the demarcation of Alevis in the last few years of the Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish Republic as “heterodox” but Muslim, and as an integral part of the Turkish culture, see Dresler (2013).

  14. 14.

    On different instances of violence against Kurdish and Alevi citizens, see Sinclair-Webb (2003), Üngör (2011), and Yüksel (2008).

  15. 15.

    There were ephemeral attempts at multiparty politics during the first two decades of the republic. The Progressive Republican Party was banned in 1925, and the Free Republican Party was forced to disband in 1930 after it was faced with allegations of advancing reactionarism and obscurantism (Altinordu 2013, p. 403). Similar allegations provided the grounds for military interventions (1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997) in the second half of the twentieth century.

  16. 16.

    Nakşibendi is an orthodox Sunni dervish order that became highly influential in the late nineteenth century. The origins of the Nurcu movement go back to Sait Nursi, known as Bediuzzuman. Sait Nursi was taught by Nakşibendi sheiks in the east at the turn of the century. He founded a religious renewal movement in the 1930s that “offered an alternative to Kemalist modernization by accepting Western science and technology, but rejecting secularism” (Zürcher 2017: xiii & 194). Also see Mardin (1989).

  17. 17.

    It is important to note here that Islamist politics in Turkey has differed from its counterparts in postcolonial states in its heavy dependence on the “organizing principle of the dominant culture and institutions of politics” (Cizre-Sakallioglu 1996, p. 241). In other words, Islamist politics in Turkey has been shaped by and has in turn shaped, the state, instead being a mere challenger to it. Also see Mardin (2005) and Lord (2018).

  18. 18.

    On the rise of the AKP to power in 2002 as a socially conservative, ‘moderately’ Islamist and neoliberal party against the backdrop of this contested history of the relationship between religion and politics, see Tugal (2009). On the inability of the secularist elites to intervene in the political system after the rise of the AKP, see Altınordu (2016).

  19. 19.

    The scholarship on Turkey explains the Islamic-Turkish synthesis endorsed by the military after the 1980 coup as a mechanism to counter communism during the Cold War era (Altınordu 2013, p. 388). For an exception, see van Bruinessen (1991).

  20. 20.

    On the increasing role of faith-based charities in welfare provision, for instance, see Göçmen (2014) and Kaya (2015).

  21. 21.

    See https://sgb.aile.gov.tr/data/545235d7369dc3369409bd46/aile_dib.pdf/. Accessed: 30 June 2018.

  22. 22.

    See https://www2.diyanet.gov.tr/DinHizmetleriGenelMudurlugu/Sayfalar/Gorevler.aspx/. Accessed: 30 June 2018.

  23. 23.

    See the detailed ruling: https://bianet.org/system/uploads/1/files/attachments/000/001/420/original/AYM_kararı.pdf?1432911977. Accessed: 30 June 2018.

  24. 24.

    See https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2017/12/20171202-10.pdf. Accessed: 30 June 2018.

  25. 25.

    See https://www.tuik.gov.tr/PreTablo.do?alt_id=1018/. Accessed: 30 June 2018.

  26. 26.

    See https://sgb.meb.gov.tr/meb_iys_dosyalar/2017_09/08151328_meb_istatistikleri_orgun_egitim_2016_2017.pdfAccessed: 30 June 2018.

  27. 27.

    See https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/egitim/783757/_Evrim_teorisi_ogrencilerin_yeterli_alt_yapiya_sahip_olmamasi_gerekcesiyle_universiteye_birakildi_.html. Accessed: 30 June 2018.

  28. 28.

    See https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/egitim/925292/Nurcular_MEB_izniyle_okullarda.html. Accessed: 30 June 2018.

  29. 29.

    See Gorski (2018, pp. 43–52) for a theoretical suggestion to develop “a nuanced set of descriptive concepts and a richer stock of explanatory mechanisms”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Applied Turkey Studies at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin, Germany

    Sinem Adar

  2. Stiftung Wissenschaft Und Politik, Berlin, Germany

    Sinem Adar

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  1. Sinem Adar
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Exzellenzcluster Religion und Politik, Universität Münster, Münster, Germany

    Christel Gärtner

  2. Bielefeld University, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld, Germany

    Heidemarie Winkel

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Adar, S. (2021). Understanding the Religion-Politics Nexus in Turkey. Continuities and Ruptures. In: Gärtner, C., Winkel, H. (eds) Exploring Islam beyond Orientalism and Occidentalism. Veröffentlichungen der Sektion Religionssoziologie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33239-6_9

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