The Republican People's Party of Turkey between the classical and new understandings of secularism

The Republican People's Party of Turkey (RPP), the founding actor of the secular nation-state, is currently the main opposition party against the religiously-oriented government party, Justice and Development Party (JDP). The latest hegemonic studies on the RPP have defined the party as a “Jacobin-minded” party with a “rigid” understanding of secularism as imposing on people Western values “alien to the fabric of the society”. Nevertheless, the party has been internally and externally struggling to redefine itself for nearly a decade. A “softer” version of secularism, compatible with the Habermasian post-secular public sphere, is on the table for at least three reasons. First, rather than an ideological reconfiguration, the transformation of the party regarding its outlook on secularism is portrayed as a strategic move. The party has been seeking a broad political alliance with right-wing parties in order to defeat President Erdoğan, an alliance that covers not only center-right parties but also Islamist parties even including those of former JDP leaders. Second, as the party turns into a center of attraction for oppressed and excluded groups of any type (from LGBT community to outsider religious orders), it has been under the growing impact of politics of identity. A pressure from inside and outside forces the party to adopt a libertarian and multiculturalist framework in approaching the role of religion in public sphere. Third, as a claimant to power, the party is concerned with displaying its commitment to neoliberal governmentality. Religious organizations are considered as legitimate agents of charity and cultural identity-based solidarity that replaced welfare state and class-based solidarity in the neoliberal age, a trend which the RPP has to align with as a mainstream party. In the presentation, these factors and their embodiments will be elaborated. On the other hand, as the JDP continues to pursue an anti-secular agenda, the RPP also feels a reverse pressure that brings back the religious-secular cleavage. Religious orders’ heavy hand on children and young adults, escalating violence against women, as well as the grip of conservative climate on arts and culture are currently leading to political controversy. Defining secularism as a pluralist principle and a matter of respect for all lifestyles and ideas seems unconvincing to many RPP voters, which creates tensions within the party and makes it fall behind the secular public opinion and activism in certain cases. Such pressures on the party will also be examined in the presentation, with an aim of foreseeing the RPP’s leaning in the near future. Official statements of the party as well as social media coverage regarding the party’s and its critics’ attitudes will be analyzed to that end.