RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OF THE SECULARISM IN TURKEY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54695/mm.224.01.722Keywords:
Islam, secularism, Turkey, AKP, Fethullah Gülen., Islam, laïcité, Turquie, AKP, Fethullah Gülen.Abstract
At the heart of Turkey’s modernization, secularism was enforced with much authoritarianism
and disrespect of people’s religious freedom and diversity. However, this illiberal secularism
progressively weakened in the slow institutional democratization process that started after
Second World War and accelerated in the 1990s and 2000s, when the country sought to join
the EU. The present political force in power, the AKP with the informal help of his longtime
ally, the Hizmet movement of Fethullah Gülen played a major role in the liberalization of
Turkish secularism. Yet, since 2011 the AKP rules with more authoritarianism than ever and
the liberalization of secularism is at jeopardy. Now that the AKP broke with the Gülen movement, they want to put an end to the neutral State secularism for the benefit of a more religious society.
