Secularism in Turkey – Current Perspectives

The concept of laicism (laiklik) became in the 20th century one of the main principles of Kemalism as well as the constitutional system of Turkey. It was based to a large extent on the French model but it evolved significantly after the Second World War being influenced both by the domestic and external factors. In the AKP era it is a very complex phenomenon. It is perceived in a different way by the Turkish social and political actors and has been at the core of the political struggle in Turkey - even more than before the AKP ruling. It leads to difficulties in defining the relationship between state/politics and religion in the contemporary Turkish state and reveals deficits of the conceptual framework to date concerning the phenomenon of secularism. The paper is an attempt to identify the type of secularism we can observe nowadays in Turkey and to propose the conceptual approach going beyond the variations to date (assertive vs. passive secularism or separationist vs. respect all, support all type). It will be possible thanks to the analysis of the functioning of the secular system in this state and answering the following questions: How is the Turkish secularism changing? Is the process of change linear? What are differences between the French and Turkish model of laicism nowadays? Should we talk about secularism or rather post-secularism in Turkey taking into consideration the process called by some scholars the “subtle Islamization”? What is the relationship between secularization as well as religious transformation and democratization in Turkey?