Narratives on religion-state relations in Turkey: continuities and discontinuities

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the trajectories of conflicting narratives that describe religion-state relations in Turkey. It explores the main tenets of the secular-religious polarization perspective (SRPP) that has been dominant until recently. It argues that while the SRPP is losing its hegemony in the field of academia, it has enduring power in the political field. The paper also contributes to the literature by discussing the ways in which the SRPP has been instrumentalized for political purposes in both domestic and international contexts by hegemonic political powers, including the ruling party, the AKP, in Turkey.

KEYWORDS:

• Religion-state relations
• secularism
• Islamism
• Turkish politics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Agah Hazır is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Van Yuzuncu Yil University. His research interests focus on comparative politics, religion-state relations and transnational Islam. Previously, Agah worked at the Middle East Technical University as a research assistant and received his PhD degree in International Relations from the same university in 2015. He has also held visiting researcher positions at the University of Tehran, University of St Andrews, and London School of Economics. His current research focuses on Turkish and Iranian states as transnational religious actors and explores how their affiliated religious institutions operate in the United Kingdom.

Notes

1 Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 111.

2 While ‘post-Kemalist view’ is widely used, I was particularly influenced by İlker Aytürk's groundbreaking article ‘Post-Post Kemalizm.’

3 Tezcur, “Afterword,” 195.

4 Lerner, The Passing of Traditional Society.

5 Toft et al., God's Century.

6 Fox and Sandler, “Separation of Religion and State”; Kuru, “The False Promise”; and Kuru, “Islam and Democracy.”

7 Kirdiş and Drhimeur, “The Rise of Populism?,” and Erdem and Öniş, “Varieties of Populism.”

8 Haynes, “Religious Transnational Actors.”

9 Mandaville and Hamid, “Islam as Statecraft.”

10 The title used for the Turkish translation of Niyazi Berkes’ classic book, The Development of Secularism in Turkey, exemplifies this point well. Instead of “Türkiye’de Sekülerleşme” or “Türkiye’de Laikleşme,” which would be the direct translation of the title, the book was published with the title “Türkiye’de Çağdaşlaşma”: “Modernization in Turkey.” Ardıç, “Türk Sekülerleşmesi İncelemelerinde,” 71.

11 Lewis, The Emergence; Berkes, Secularism in Turkey; and Ahmad, Making of Modern Turkey.

12 Mardin, Religion and Social Change.

13 Göle, Modern Mahrem.

14 Yavuz, Modernleşen Müslümanlar.

15 Kuru, Secularism and State Policies. One should bear in mind that some of these works were written during the heyday of the conflict between Kemalist and post-Kemalist paradigms. Later, some of these authors changed their perspectives or their focuses, and Ahmet Kuru is one of them. In his early works, while focusing on the problems of religion-state relations in Turkey, Kuru claimed that the Kemalist policy of ‘assertive secularism,’ which aims to exclude religion from the public sphere, was responsible for the problems of the Turkish political sphere. However, in his later works, he stopped focusing on the Kemalist era and opted for more historical explanations focused on the state-ulama alliance of the eleventh century and its impacts on the Islamic world. Kuru, Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment.

16 See Akgün, Halifeliğin Kaldırılması ve Laiklik, as a late example of the first version of the SRPP. quoted in Ardıç, “Türk Sekülerleşmesi İncelemelerinde,” 72.

17 Cizre Sakallıoğlu, Parameters and Strategies.

18 Navaro-Yashin, Faces of the State.

19 Karaveli, Why Turkey Is Authoritarian, 3.

20 Başkan, From Religious Empires, 148.

21 Kara, Cumhuriyet Türkiyesi’nde.

22 Yilmaz, “The AKP and the Spirit.”

23 Bakiner, “A Key to Turkish Politics.”

24 Gözaydın, Diyanet.

25 Citak, “National Conceptions,” and Öztürk and Sözeri, “Diyanet as a Turkish Foreign Policy Tool.”

26 Lord, Religious Politics, 36.

27 Shenhav, “Political Narratives,” 246.

28 Bennett and Edelman, “Toward a New Political Narrative,” 159.

29 Palabıyık, “Politicization of Recent,” 5.

30 Not only is the ‘post Kemalist’ narrative utilized by the AKP camp, but the founders of this narrative have close relations with AKP elites. One of the most important examples of this relationship is that between Ahmet Davutoğlu and Şerif Mardin, the latter being the PhD supervisor of the former. Göle, Kuru, and Yavuz all continued to support the AKP until the 2010s.

31 See Açıkel, “‘Kutsal Mazlumluğun’ Psikopatolojisi,” for this concept.

32 Turam, “Introduction,” 5.

33 For the politicization of history in Turkish politics, see Palabıyık, “Politicization of Recent” and Ersanlı, İktidar ve Tarih.

34 Reactionary Islam: for the political uses of the concept by Kemalists against their political opponents, please see Azak, Islam and Secularism, 86–115.

35 Even just looking at the title of the last book of Kadir Mısıroğlu (2015), a popular pro-AKP historian, provides us with an understanding on the state-religion narrative of the AKP regarding the CHP. The book is entitled ‘Pages from the Sins Gallery of the CHP, Which Is Invented for the Replacement of Its Six Arrows With Six Principles of Faith’ (Altı Oku İmanın Altı Şartı Yerine Konulmak Üzere İcad Edilmiş Olan: CHP’nin Günah Galerisinden Sayfalar).

36 “Dün neredeler ise bugün de oradalar,” Yeni Şafak, June 10, 2011. Available at https://www.yenisafak.com/politika/dun-neredeler-ise-bugun-de-oradalar-323681 (accessed October 07, 2019).

37 “Türkiye’nin fotoğrafı burada,” NTV, June 16, 2013. Available at https://www.ntv.com.tr/turkiye/turkiyenin-fotografi-burada,1f29uEeicE6mnP2OrRV-8w (accessed October 07, 2019).

38 “Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan’dan son dakika açıklaması: Hakkari’de dört evladımız şehit oldu,” Hürriyet, November 10, 2018. Available at http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/erdogandan-ataturku-anma-programinda-onemli-aciklamalar-41014729 (accessed October 07, 2019).

39 Çakır, “Bir Sistem Partisi.”

40 “Erdoğan: Kimin içkisine Karıştık?,” T24, June 8, 2011. Available at https://t24.com.tr/haber/erdogan-kimin-ickisinekaristik-ankara-aa,150076 (accessed October 07, 2019).

41 As quoted in Palabıyık, “Politicization of Recent,” 15.

42 Referring to the Union of Committee and Progress.

43 Palabıyık, “Politicization of Recent,” 11.

44 “Devlet Bahçeli: ‘Türkçe ezan neyse Kürtçe Kur’an da odur’,” Türkiye Gazetesi, May 7, 2015. Available at https://www.turkiyegazetesi.com.tr/gundem/265974.aspx (accessed October 07, 2019).

45 Mudde, “The Populist Zeitgeist,” 543.

46 “Ünal’dan CHP’ye: FETÖ 40 yıl sizin baskı ikliminizde büyüdü,” Cumhuriyet, May 13, 2018.Available at http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/siyaset/974592/Unal_dan_CHP_ye__FETO_40_yil_sizin_baski_ikliminizde_buyudu.html (accessed October 07, 2019).

47 “MHP’li Yusuf Halaçoğlu: Sözlerimin arkasındayım, CHP’den özür dilemem,” Hürriyet, July 12, 2015. Available at http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/mhpli-yusuf-halacoglu-sozlerimin-arkasindayim-chpden-ozur-dilemem-29528730 (accessed October 07, 2019).

48 Başkan, “Islamism and Turkey.”

49 Ibid.

50 “CHP`ye mezhepli gönderme,” Hürriyet, September 9, 2011. Available at http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/chpye-mezhepli-gonderme-18678802 (accessed October 07, 2019).

51 “Davutoğlu: Cahillerle tartışmak zor,” Sabah, October 24, 2014. Available at https://www.sabah.com.tr/gundem/2014/10/24/basbakan-davutoglu-ak-parti-il-baskanlari-toplantisinda-konusuyor (accessed October 07, 2019).

52 “Davutoğlu çareyi buldu: Bir yerine 10 TOMA,” Cumhuriyet, October 14, 2014. Available at http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/siyaset/130265/Davutoglu_careyi_buldu__Bir_yerine_10_TOMA.html (accessed October 07, 2019).

53 “Caniklìden Tek Parti dönemi kıyaslaması,” T24, February 3, 2011. Available at https://t24.com.tr/haber/canikliden-34tek-parti-donemi34-kiyaslamasi-tbmm-aa,125520 (accessed October 07, 2019).

54 “Metiner: Hangi CHP’liye inanacağız?,” Haber7, July 28, 2013. Available at http://www.haber7.com/ic-politika/haber/1055692-metiner-hangi-chpliye-inanacagiz (accessed October 07, 2019).

55 Quoted in White, Muslim Nationalism, 72.

56 According to Kenan Çayır, the author of Islamic Literature in Contemporary Turkey, Minyeli Abdullah had sold 275,000 copies as of 2003. This makes the novel one of the most popular Islamic-conservative works of art in Turkey. Çayır, Islamic Literature, 7.

57 Hekimoğlu İsmail, Minyeli Abdullah, 13.

58 See Çiftçi, “Social Identity and Attitudes.”

59 Identifying those who fled from Mecca to Medina during the early Islamic era because of religious persecution.

60 Denotes the inhabitants of Medina who helped those escaping from Mecca.

61 Quoted in Karakaya Polat, “Religious solidarity, historical mission,” 11.

62 “İmamoğlu, Yeni Zelanda’da hayatını kaybedenler için Yasin okudu,” Sözcü, March 17, 2019. Available at https://www.sozcu.com.tr/2019/gundem/son-dakika-imamoglu-yeni-zelandada-olenler-icin-yasin-okudu-3947579/ (accessed October 07, 2019).

63 “Mansur Yavaş noktayı böyle koydu!,” halkinhabercisi.com, April 8, 2019. Available at http://www.halkinhabercisi.com/mansur-yavas-noktayi-boyle-koydu (accessed October 07, 2019).

64 “Bolu’da CHP’li Tanju Özcan, Kuran’a el basarak göreve başladı,” Cumhuriyet, April 5, 2019. Available at http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/siyaset/1331962/Bolu_da_CHP_li_Tanju_Ozcan__Kuran_a_el_basarak_goreve_basladi.html (accessed October 07, 2019).