Secularism in Turkey – What Is It All About Today?

In the 20th century the concept of laicism (laiklik) became one of the main principles of Kemalism and the constitutional system of Turkey. It was based to a large extent on the French model but from the very beginning it had its own specificity and being affected by the domestic, regional and global factors it evolved significantly after the Second World War. In the AKP era it is a very complex phenomenon. It is perceived in a different way by the Turkish social and political actors. It leads to difficulties in defining what is “state” and “religion” in contemporary Turkey as well as the relationship between these phenomena. It reveals also deficits of the conceptual framework to date concerning secularism. The Paper is an attempt to identify the type of secularism to be observed nowadays in Turkey and to propose the conceptual framework going beyond the secularization theory, static approach to secularism and its variations so far. It will be possible thanks to a thorough analysis of the evolution of secular system in this state as well as answering the following questions: How is the understanding of “state” and “religion” changing in Turkey? How is the phenomenon of secularism evolving? What can the so called “subtle Islamization” tell us about the Turkish secularism nowadays? What is the role of political power in shaping the secularism in Turkey? What is the relationship between secularization as well as religious transformation and democratization in Turkey (the situation of religious minorities)?