‘Raising a moral generation’: the Republican People's Party and religious instruction in Turkey, 1946–1949

ABSTRACT

When Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as the Prime Minister of the Turkish Republic, declared his government's intention to raise a ‘religious generation’, his proposition drew harsh criticisms from Turkey's secularists, who argued that doing so would clearly challenge the secular nature of the Turkish state. Yet it may come as a surprise to many that it was not a conservative party with Islamist leanings that first experimented with the idea of relying on religious education as an antidote to the perceived moral decadence of the society. Rather, it was the secularist party, the Republican People's Party, which attempted to use religious instruction for the same purpose during the heyday of Kemalism in the 1940s. Against this backdrop, providing an analysis of how the Republican People's Party had come to the point of offering religious education to school children and how it justified this policy can shed light on today's debate on secularism and the secular character of the Turkish state.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. B. Alpan, ‘AKP's “Conservative Democracy” as an Empty Signifier in Turkish Politics: Shifts and Challenges after 2002’, IPSA 22nd World Congress of Political Science, 8–12 July 2012. Madrid, 2012; B. Duran, ‘Understanding the AK Party's Identity Politics: A Civilizational Discourse and its Limitations’, Insight Turkey, Vol.15 (2013), p.104; Habertürk, 2 Feb. 2012; Hürriyet, 2 Feb. 2012.

2. Hürriyet, 27 Feb. 2016.

3. Radikal, 6 Feb. 2012.

4. In its application to the Constitutional Court on 8 June 2012 for the annulment of the JDP's new educational arrangement, the RPP had argued in very clear terms that ‘raising a religious generation’ would be a violation of the principle of secularism. See http://arsiv.chp.org.tr/?p=75076 (downloaded on 31 Mar. 2016). Furthermore, Fatma Köse, the president of RPP Women's Branches, said on 3 Mar. 2016 that the state should not raise a religious generation. See http://www.halkizbiz.com/chp-haberleri/kose-dindar-nesil-yaratmak-bir-devlet-projesi-olmamalidir-h15982.html (downloaded on 30 Mar. 2016). Also see Cüneyt Arcayürek's article in Cumhuriyet, 3 Feb. 2012.

5. According to many Kemalists, the years between 1923 and 1950 were the ‘golden age’ of Kemalism. In this period, Turkey strove to accomplish the entrenchment of secularism, which has been seen by many as the chief principle of the Kemalist ideology. See E. Özyürek, Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), pp.55 and 85; U. Azak, Islam and Secularism in Turkey: Kemalism, Religion and the Nation State (London: I.B. Tauris, 2010), pp.9 and 60. Kemalists maintain that Turkey has been going through a ‘counterrevolution’ since 1950 when the secularist RPP left office to the Democratic Party, which initiated anti-secularist politics. See Azak, Islam and Secularism in Turkey: Kemalism, Religion and the Nation State, p.9. Ayla Göl writes that right-wing and religious parties have played the religious card for political ends since 1950. See A. Göl, ‘The Identity of Turkey: Muslim and Secular’, Third World Quarterly, Vol.30 (2009), p.802.

6. For example, İsmail Kaplan calls this policy ‘retrogressive’. See İ. Kaplan, Türkiye'de Milli Eğitim İdeolojisi ve Siyasal Toplumsallaşma Üzerindeki Etkisi [National Education Ideology in Turkey and its Impact on Political Socialization] (İstanbul: İletişim, 1999), pp.212–3. Also see Ş. Mardin, Türkiye'de Din ve Siyaset [Religion and Politics in Turkey] (İstanbul: İletişim, 1993), pp.123–4 and 206–7 where Mardin describes the RPP's turn as ‘ironic’.

7. A.M. Kazamias, Education and the Quest for Modernity in Turkey (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), p.220; B. Toprak, Islam and Political Development in Turkey (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981), pp.50–51; S.Y. Pak, ‘Cultural Politics and Vocational Religious Education: The Case of Turkey’, Comparative Education, Vol.40 (2004), p.326; S. Bilgi, ‘Monuments to the Republic: School as a Nationalising Discourse in Turkey’, Paedagogica Historica, Vol.50 (2014), p.364.

8. B. İnce, Citizenship and Identity in Turkey (London: I. B. Tauris, 2012), p.63; H.L. Kieser, Turkey Beyond Nationalism (London: I.B. Tauris, 2006), p.48; R.D. Lee, Religion and Politics in the Middle East (Boulder: Westview Press, 2014), p.47; Y. Bayar, ‘The Dynamic Nature of Educational Policies and Turkish Nation-Building? Where Does Religion Fit in?’, in B. Turam (ed.), Secular State and Religious Society (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp.20–21 and 25; F.W. Frey, The Turkish Political Elite (Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press, 1965), pp.40–41; M.H. Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), p.50.

9. L. Ostrorog, Ankara Reformu (İstanbul: Edebiyal Fakültesi Matbaası, 1972), pp.75–6; N. Berkes, Development of Secularism in Turkey (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1998), p.477; Toprak, Islam and Political Development in Turkey, p.49; Bayar, ‘The Dynamic Nature of Educational Policies and Turkish Nation-Building? Where Does Religion Fit in?’, pp.27–8; E.J. Zürcher, Turkey: A Modern History (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004), p.187; Kazamias, Education and the Quest for Modernity in Turkey, p.195; Kaplan, Türkiye'de Milli Eğitim İdeolojisi ve Siyasal Toplumsallaşma Üzerindeki Etkisi, p.159; A.T. Kuru, Secularism and State Policies Toward Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p.218; T. Gündüz, ‘Türkiye'de Cumhuriyet Dönemi Din Eğitimi ve Öğretimi Kronolojisi’ [‘The Chronology of Religious Education and Instruction during the Republican Era in Turkey’] , Uludağ Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi, Vol.7 (1998), p.544.

10. Bayar, ‘The Dynamic Nature of Educational Policies and Turkish Nation-Building? Where Does Religion Fit in?’, pp.28–9.

11. Kaplan, Türkiye'de Milli Eğitim İdeolojisi ve Siyasal Toplumsallaşma Üzerindeki Etkisi, p.159; A. Davison, Secularism and Revivalism in Turkey (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), pp.163–4; Gündüz, ‘Türkiye'de Cumhuriyet Dönemi Din Eğitimi ve Öğretimi Kronolojisi’, pp.545–8

12. H.A. Reed, ‘Revival of Islam in Secular Turkey’, Middle East Journal, Vol.8 (1954), p.269; Gündüz, ‘Türkiye'de Cumhuriyet Dönemi Din Eğitimi ve Öğretimi Kronolojisi’, pp.546–7; Kaplan, Türkiye'de Milli Eğitim İdeolojisi ve Siyasal Toplumsallaşma Üzerindeki Etkisi, p.159.

13. Gündüz, ‘Türkiye'de Cumhuriyet Dönemi Din Eğitimi ve Öğretimi Kronolojisi’, p.547; İ.B. Gözaydın, Diyanet: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde Dinin Tanzimi [Directorate for Religious Affairs: Regulating Religion in the Turkish Republic] (İstanbul: İletişim, 2009), pp.24–5; Davison, Secularism and Revivalism in Turkey, p.166.

14. H.E. Allen, The Turkish Transformation (New York: Greenwood Press, 1935), p.183.

15. Kaplan, Türkiye'de Milli Eğitim İdeolojisi ve Siyasal Toplumsallaşma Üzerindeki Etkisi, p.160.

16. T. Parla and A. Davison, Corporatist Ideology in Kemalist Turkey (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2004), p.119.

17. Bayar, ‘The Dynamic Nature of Educational Policies and Turkish Nation-Building? Where Does Religion Fit in?’, p.24.

18. From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 31 Dec. 1946, National Archives Records Administration (NARA) 867.404/12-3146; Gözaydın, Diyanet: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde Dinin Tanzimi, pp.28–9; A.A. Adivar, ‘Islamic and Western Thought in Turkey’, Middle East Journal, Vol.1 (1947), pp.279–280; D.A. Rustow, ‘Politics and Islam in Turkey 1920–1955’, in R.N. Frye (ed.), Islam and the West (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1957), p.93; G. Jäschke, Yeni Türkiye'de İslamlık [Islam in Modern Turkey] (Ankara: Bilgi Yayınevi, 1972), p.83; B. Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p.418; J.M. VanderLippe, The Politics of Turkish Democracy (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2005), pp.172–3; G. Cetinsaya, ‘Rethinking Nationalism and Islam: Some Preliminary on the Roots of “Turkish-Islamic Synthesis” in Modern Turkish Political Thought’, Muslim World, Vol.89 (1999), pp.368–9; Mardin, Türkiye'de Din ve Siyaset, pp.206–7. It should be noted that these two deputies were not the first public figures who suggested that religion could prevent moral decay and serve as a bulwark against the penetration of communism. Already in 1943 Ahmet Hamdi Akseki, the then deputy-director of the Directorate for Religious Affairs (DRA) (a public institution under the Prime Minister's Office that was established in 1924 to oversee the running of religious places and personnel—on the DRA, see Gözaydın, Diyanet: Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde Dinin Tanzimi) who would be promoted to the director's office later in 1947, wrote that religion was the ‘police’ (zabıta) for providing order in the society because one would take religion with oneself wherever one went. Religion would prevent one from committing bad deeds and encourage good ones. Therefore, it would be superior to any man-made law. See A.H. Akseki, İslam Fıtri, Tabii ve Umumi Bir Dindir [Islam is a Connate, Natural and General Religion] (İstanbul: Matbaai Ebuzziya, 1943), p.137. Second, Ahmet Hamdi Başar, a RPP member, wrote in 1945 that religion was the principal element that cemented Turkish society and helped preserve order. Without Islam, society would be ruined. Therefore, Islam should be put under the service of the Kemalist reform movement. In this regard, mosques needed to be converted into modern people's houses where the revolution could speak to the larger society. See A.H. Başar, Atatürk'le Üç Ay ve 1930dan Sonra Türkiye [Three months with Atatürk and Turkey after 1930] (İstanbul: Tan Matbaası, 1945), p.51.

19. W. Hale, Turkish Foreign Policy Since 1774 (London: Routledge, 2013), p.80; Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, p.309.

20. L. Cantek, Cumhuriyetin Büluğ çağı: Gündelik Yaşama Dair Tartışmalar (1945–1950) [The Adolescence of the Republic: Debates on Daily Life (1945–1950)] (İstanbul: İletişim, 2013).

21. Turkish Grand National Assembly (from now on TGNA) Proceedings, Term VIII, Vol.3, Session I, 24 Dec. 1946, p.427–8.

22. TGNA Proceedings, Term VIII, Vol.3, Session I, 24 Dec. 1946, p.428.

23. From Herbert S. Bursley to the Secretary of State, 12 Feb. 1947, NARA967.404/2–1247.

24. TGNA Proceedings, Term VIII, Vol.3, Session I, 24 Dec. 1946, p.438–440.

25. TGNA Proceedings, Term VIII, Vol.2, Session I, 24 Dec. 1946, p.444–6; From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 31 Dec. 1946, NARA867.404/12–3146.

26. TGNA Proceedings, Term VIII, Vol. 3, Session I, 24 Dec. 1946, p.445–6.

27. From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 31 Dec. 1946, NARA867.404/12–3146.

28. From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 31 Dec. 1946, NARA867.404/12–3146.

29. R.Ö. Dönmez, ‘Coups d'états and the Masculine Turkish Political Sphere: Modernization without Strong Democatization’, in R.Ö. Dönmez and F.A. Dönmez (eds.), Gendered Identities: Criticizing Patriarchy in Turkey (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013), p.11. Ali Fuad Başgil argued that in countries where religion was subordinated to the state, the latter opened and closed down religious institutions and appointed religious functionaries willy-nilly, and politicians felt free to act like religious doctors themselves. See A.F. Başgil, Din ve Laiklik (İstanbul: Sönmez Neşriyat ve Matbaacılık, 1962), p.166.

30. From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 31 Jan. 1947, NARA867.00/1–3147.

31. ‘Memorandum on the People's Party Supreme Council's Decision Regarding Religious Instruction in Turkey’ in the letter from Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 6 Feb. 1947, NARA867.404/2–647.

32. Ulus, 4 May 1947. Also see the letter from Herbert S. Bursley, 13 May 1947, NARA867.404/5–1347.

33. Reed, ‘Revival of Islam in Secular Turkey’, p.271. For a different view, see F. Ahmad, ‘The Search for Ideology in Kemalist Turkey, 1919–1939’ in F. Ahmad, From Empire to Republic: Essays on the Late Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Volume I (Istanbul: Istanbul Bilgi University Press, 2014), p.183 where the author argued that ‘Kemalist Turkey’ had been ‘a more open society which permitted greater intellectual freedom than the period that followed’.

34. Reed, ‘Revival of Islam in Secular Turkey’, p.271. On the translation into Turkish of the Encyclopaedia of Islam in 1939 also see Rustow, ‘Politics and Islam in Turkey 1920–1955’, p.89; Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, p.417.

35. ‘Chronology of Events From Jan. to July 31, 1947’, 27 Aug. 1947, NARA867.00/8–2747; From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 11 July 1947, NARA867.404/7–1147. Also see Mardin, Türkiye'de Din ve Siyaset, p.100.

36. ‘Chronology of Events From Jan. to July 31, 1947’, 27 Aug. 1947, NARA867.00/8–2747.

37. From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 11 July 1947, NARA867.404/7–1147.

38. From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 11 July 1947, NARA867.404/7–1147.

39. From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 11 July 1947, NARA867.404/7–1147

40. From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 11 July 1947, NARA867.404/7–1147

41. From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 11 July 1947, NARA867.404/7–1147

42. Cumhuriyet, 11 July 1947.

43. Tanin, 3 Oct. 1947. Also see the letter from Bursley to the Secretary of State, 10 Oct. 1947, NARA867.00/10–1047.

44. From Herbert S. Bursley to the Secretary of State, 14 Oct. 1947, NARA867.404/10–1447.

45. Tanrıöver's views were published in a series of articles in Tasvir between 4 and 9 Oct. 1947. On Tanrıöver's interview with Tasvir, also see the letter from Herbert S. Bursley to the Secretary of State, 14 Oct. 1947, NARA867.404/10–1447.

46. C.H.P. Yedinci Kurultay Tutanağı [The Proceedings of the RPP Seventh Congress] (Ankara: Ulus Matbaası, 1948), pp.447–54; From Wilson to the Secretary of State, 12 Dec. 1947, NARA867.00/12–1247; Jäschke, Yeni Türkiye'de İslamlık, pp.85–6; Rustow, ‘Politics and Islam in Turkey 1920–1955’, pp.93–4; T.Z. Tunaya, İslamcılık Akımı (İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları, 2007), pp.172–5; Kuru, Secularism and State Policies Toward Religion, p.218.

47. C.H.P. Yedinci Kurultay Tutanağı, pp.454–9; From Wilson to the Secretary of State, 12 Dec. 1947, NARA867.00/12–1247.

48. C.H.P. Yedinci Kurultay Tutanağı, pp.459–67; From Wilson to the Secretary of State, 12 Dec. 1947, NARA867.00/12–1247; Jäschke, Yeni Türkiye'de İslamlık, p.86.

49. From Herbert S. Bursley to the Secretary of State, 28 Nov. 1947, NARA867.404/11–2847; Cumhuriyet, 26 Nov. 1947.

50. TGNA Proceedings, Term VIII, Vol.8, Session 2, 29 Dec. 1947, p.611.

51. TGNA Proceedings, Term VIII, Vol.8, Session 2, 29 Dec. 1947, pp.622–3.

52. From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 24 Feb. 1948, NARA867.42/2–2448; Cumhuriyet, 20 Feb. 1948; Toprak, Islam and Political Development in Turkey, pp.77–8.

53. From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 24 Feb. 1948, NARA867.42/2–2448.

54. From Edwin C. Wilson to the Secretary of State, 24 Feb. 1948, NARA867.42/2–2448.

55. This school would eventually open in Oct. 1949 within Ankara University. See Reed, ‘Revival of Islam in Secular Turkey’, p.274; C.H. Dodd, Politics and Government in Turkey (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1969), p.24; Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, p.419; Toprak, Islam and Political Development in Turkey, pp.50 and 78; VanderLippe, The Politics of Turkish Democracy, p.191; Mardin, Türkiye'de Din ve Siyaset, p.100.

56. Cumhuriyet, 7 May 1948 and 21 May 1948; Jäschke, Yeni Türkiye'de İslamlık, p.77.

57. From Warwick Perkins to the Secretary of State, 24 Sept. 1948, NARA867.42/9–2448; H.A. Reed, ‘Turkey's New Imam-Hatip Schools’, Die Welt des Islams, Vol.4 (1955), pp.153–4.

58. From Warwick Perkins to the Secretary of State, 24 Sept. 1948, NARA867.42/9–2448; Cumhuriyet, 1 Oct. 1948.

59. From Wadsworth to the Secretary of State, 3 Feb. 1949, NARA867.00/2–349. Also see Jäschke, Yeni Türkiye'de İslamlık, p.77; Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, p.418; Toprak, Islam and Political Development in Turkey, pp.50 and 78; B. Akşit, ‘Islamic Education in Turkey: Medrese Reform in Late Ottoman Times and Imam-Hatip Schools in the Republic’ in R. Tapper (ed.), Islam in Modern Turkey (London: I. B. Tauris, 1991), pp.146 and 161; VanderLippe, The Politics of Turkish Democracy, p.191; Reed, ‘Turkey's New Imam-Hatip Schools’, pp.153–4.

60. That the teaching was to be done by lay teachers and not by clergy was also noted by Lewis Thomas. See L.V. Thomas, ‘Recent Developments in Turkish Islam’, Middle East Journal, Vol.6 (1952), p.23.

61. Jäschke, Yeni Türkiye'de İslamlık, pp.89–90; Reed, ‘Turkey's New Imam-Hatip Schools’, p.152; Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p.72.

62. Azak, Islam and Secularism in Turkey: Kemalism, Religion and the Nation State, p.12; Parla and Davison, Corporatist Ideology in Kemalist Turkey, pp.107–8, 113 and 118; C. Houston, Islam, Kurds and the Turkish Nation State (Oxford: Berg, 2001), p.85; U. Ulutas, ‘Religion and Secularism in Turkey: The Dilemma of the Directorate of Religious Affairs’, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.46 (2010), p.398.