Many observers fail to see the unique position of Turkey concerning state, society and religion mainly because they concentrate on recent reports in the mass media which usually focus on tensions and fears. Therefore analysis on these issues only touches the surface and fails to grasp the persistent multidimensional modern Turkey. Turkey occupies a unique place among modern nation states. Not only from a geopolitical point of view, but also from cultural and religious points of view. Turkey lies at the crossroads between Eastern and Western interests. The political and cultural identity of modern Turkey emerged under the influence of domestic and external forces that existed in and around Turkey throughout the centuries. Since modern Turkey was established on the remains of the Ottoman Empire, periods of conflict and cooperation between Turkey and other political entities, such as Europe and the Middle East, have led to the development of the modern Turkish state and influenced its move toward modernization.
The establishment of a modern Turkey based on Western political models was a watershed in Turkey's history. The early republican elite distanced themselves from the cultural and ideological heritage of the Ottoman Empire and laid the foundational elements of modernization and Westernization. These foundational elements were vastly embraced and expanded by the early republican elite circles in the formative period of modern Turkey. However, even today, the Ottoman political culture and state traditions continue to influence politics, though in a modified form.
Modern Turkey continues to seek an appropriate balance between religion and secularism in a nation that is almost entirely Muslim. Given its historical and recent experiences, Turkey offers an excellent example of a case study for those seeking answers to the following questions: Can Islam and democracy coexist? How far can religion and secularism be reconciled? To what extent can religious liberty, particularly freedom of religious expression, be extended in a secular state with a majority Muslim population? How does a Muslim majority address the problems of non-Muslim minorities? These and other similar questions should be answered within the context of the global spread of democracy and the rise of religion.
The Ottoman Empire was an Islamic state in which the head of the state served as a caliph who held both temporal and spiritual authority. The traditional political culture of the empire, as well as its administrative machinery, continued with little change as long as the state preserved its military might and economic power. However, beginning in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the Ottoman Empire entered a period of military and economic decline. New ideas emerged regarding the necessity of reforms in the political, economic, educational, and military spheres. Consequently, Ottoman leaders felt it necessary to introduce reforms into the empire's political, economic, military, and educational structures. The resulting modernization and secularization of the Ottoman Empire occurred in several phases that were ushered in by significant events. The earliest efforts at modernization and the incorporation of Western influences can be traced to the impact of the French Revolution in 1789.
The establishment of a modern nation-state in Turkey crystallized the ideological orientation of the republican elite aimed at reshaping the state and its institutions on the basis of a secular model inspired by the West. Political, social, and religious developments in modern Turkey were influenced by the ideals of modernism and secularism. As Nilufer Gole argued, "Since its foundation, Turkey's political elites voluntarily attempted the most radical secularization among the Muslim countries. The principle of democracy was secondary to that of state secularism."
Inspired by the principles of modernization, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding leader of modern Turkey, introduced sweeping changes in Turkish society with the aim of changing the basic structure of Turkish society and redefining the political community. He tried to remove society from a religious framework and introduce society to a sense of belonging to a newly defined "Turkish nation." To achieve this goal, Ataturk launched a movement of cultural Westernization to provide the Turkish nation with a new worldview that would replace its religious worldview and culture. Ataturk treated separation of religion and politics as a prerequisite step to opening the doors to Western values. Therefore, secularism became one of the central tenets of Ataturk's program to accomplish modernization. Secularization reforms, which were undertaken during the first decade of the new republic, founded in 1923, aimed at minimizing the role of religion in every walk of Turkish society. The motive behind the secularization program was to reduce the societal significance of religious values and eventually disestablish cultural and political institutions stamped by Islam.
This program was implemented through a well-planned policy comprised of three phases: symbolic secularization, institutional secularization, and functional secularization.
Despite the secularization efforts and the restrictions on religious practices, Islam has remained one of the major identity references in Turkey and it continues to be an influential social reality, shaping the fabric of Turkish society. The equation between being a Turk and being a Muslim is a hallmark of Turkish identity. As Bernard Lewis pointed out, despite the striking changes that Turkish society has faced, the Islamic imprint still remains alive: "Islam has profound roots among Turkish society. From its foundation to until its fall, the Ottoman Empire was a state dedicated to the advancement or defense of the power and faith of Islam. Turkish thought, life and letters were permeated through and through by the inherited traditions of the classical Muslim cultures, which, though transmuted into something new and distinctive, remained basically and unshakably Islamic. After a century of Westernization, Turkey has undergone under immense changes -- greater than any outside observer had thought possible. But the deepest Islamic roots of Turkish life and culture are still alive, and the ultimate identity of Turk and Muslim in Turkey is still unchallenged." This statement shows that Islamic values are deeply rooted in Turkish society.
Turkey's transition to multiparty politics in the late 1940s marked a turning point in relaxing the official attitude towards religion, ending the era of strict secularism set forth by the Republican People's Party (CHP) that originally held power. Under the multiparty period Islam has returned to the public sphere through the mechanism of political parties and political participation. In 1950 the Democratic Party (DP) won the first election after transition to the multiparty system, ousting the CHP. While some scholars suggest that the "autocratic rule" of the CHP during the single-party period contributed to the emergence of an opposition that favored further democratization and liberalization, others attribute the DP's election victory to the tolerant attitude of the party officials towards religion and to the response of the party to the pragmatic needs of the population, including religious needs. In any event, this event underlined the centrality of Islam in Turkish society and its potential force in shaping the political behavior of the community.
In that first multiparty general election, religious groups sought to influence parties by giving support to them. The influence of religious groups that supported the DP was seen shortly after the DP's election into power, and religion resurfaced more openly in social life. For example, the DP government extended religious education to all schools with the possibility of opting out if parents so wished. The DP government allowed religion to enter society on other fronts as well, for instance by allowing religious magazines and journals to appear in the public domain. Nevertheless, although political ideologies inspired by the religiously oriented worldview began to enter the public domain towards the end of the 1960s, such an accommodation of religiously based political ideologies was against the ideals of modernization and secularization. Consequently, the tension and controversy over the expression of Islam through a political front grew. We will address this questions and recent developments in state, society, and religion relations in the second part of this article.
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