Analysis of the roots and contradictions of secularism in Turkey

The present paper is aimed at investigating the intellectual – historical roots of institutional secularization of the Turkish government, and fundamental characteristics and contradictions of the Turkish secularism model (known as Laiklik) during its establishment period. Later on, these contradict...

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Main Author: borhan salimi
Format: Article
Language:fas
Published: Shahid Beheshti University 2024-09-01
Series:رهیافتهای سیاسی و بین المللی
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Online Access:https://piaj.sbu.ac.ir/article_104970_ed0fc569ed76a53958021552d00cab7f.pdf
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author borhan salimi
author_facet borhan salimi
author_sort borhan salimi
collection DOAJ
description The present paper is aimed at investigating the intellectual – historical roots of institutional secularization of the Turkish government, and fundamental characteristics and contradictions of the Turkish secularism model (known as Laiklik) during its establishment period. Later on, these contradictions caused major challenges in the Turkish politics, keeping the religion – government gap still an active political issue. Despite the officiality of the Laiklik and the official secular rhetoric, the government’s authoritative interventions into religious affairs, nationalization of Islam, and failure to preserve the neutrality of the government in practice (regarding different religions and sects) are among the most important characteristics of the Turkish secularism during its establishment period. These three contradicting characteristics are among the most important distinctions between this particular model of secularism and the western models of secularism.Considering equal dignity for people with different religious and non-religious beliefs and ensuring conscience – religion freedom have been among the most basic objectives of the secularism. The principle of non-interference of the government in religious affairs and the principle of neutrality are basic instruments for realizing such an objective. In the Turkish model, however, from the early stages of establishment of the secularism (Ataturk Administration), the objectives were pretty ambiguous. During this stage, the secular politics was based on political authoritarianism, extreme ethnic nationalism, and authoritative modernization, of which the secularization was only a part. Accordingly, this model of secularism possessed particular features and contradictions that have remained unresolved till today
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series رهیافتهای سیاسی و بین المللی
spelling doaj-art-751bd1dd7c614bd7a27fda6e02a4aa9d2025-08-20T04:00:45ZfasShahid Beheshti Universityرهیافتهای سیاسی و بین المللی1735-739X2645-43862024-09-0116314616810.48308/piaj.2024.235761.1539104970Analysis of the roots and contradictions of secularism in Turkeyborhan salimi0Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.The present paper is aimed at investigating the intellectual – historical roots of institutional secularization of the Turkish government, and fundamental characteristics and contradictions of the Turkish secularism model (known as Laiklik) during its establishment period. Later on, these contradictions caused major challenges in the Turkish politics, keeping the religion – government gap still an active political issue. Despite the officiality of the Laiklik and the official secular rhetoric, the government’s authoritative interventions into religious affairs, nationalization of Islam, and failure to preserve the neutrality of the government in practice (regarding different religions and sects) are among the most important characteristics of the Turkish secularism during its establishment period. These three contradicting characteristics are among the most important distinctions between this particular model of secularism and the western models of secularism.Considering equal dignity for people with different religious and non-religious beliefs and ensuring conscience – religion freedom have been among the most basic objectives of the secularism. The principle of non-interference of the government in religious affairs and the principle of neutrality are basic instruments for realizing such an objective. In the Turkish model, however, from the early stages of establishment of the secularism (Ataturk Administration), the objectives were pretty ambiguous. During this stage, the secular politics was based on political authoritarianism, extreme ethnic nationalism, and authoritative modernization, of which the secularization was only a part. Accordingly, this model of secularism possessed particular features and contradictions that have remained unresolved till todayhttps://piaj.sbu.ac.ir/article_104970_ed0fc569ed76a53958021552d00cab7f.pdfsecularismrepublic of turkeylaicismauthoritarianism
spellingShingle borhan salimi
Analysis of the roots and contradictions of secularism in Turkey
رهیافتهای سیاسی و بین المللی
secularism
republic of turkey
laicism
authoritarianism
title Analysis of the roots and contradictions of secularism in Turkey
title_full Analysis of the roots and contradictions of secularism in Turkey
title_fullStr Analysis of the roots and contradictions of secularism in Turkey
title_full_unstemmed Analysis of the roots and contradictions of secularism in Turkey
title_short Analysis of the roots and contradictions of secularism in Turkey
title_sort analysis of the roots and contradictions of secularism in turkey
topic secularism
republic of turkey
laicism
authoritarianism
url https://piaj.sbu.ac.ir/article_104970_ed0fc569ed76a53958021552d00cab7f.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT borhansalimi analysisoftherootsandcontradictionsofsecularisminturkey