Is Turkey a secular state

Answer 1

Although Turkey has a Muslim population of around 98%, the Turkish constitution prohibits any mixing of state and religion (laïcité/secularism). Therefore, Turkey is not an Islamic country (a country that recognizes Islam as a state religion), but it is a Muslim-majority country. Additionally, because of Turkey's economic successes, it is often seen as a leader of the Islamic World, notwithstanding its secularism.

Answer 2

Enjoyturkey.com, a fairly credible website states that, "99% of the Turkish population is Muslim. The remaining is composed of Orthodox Christians, Gregorian Christians, Catholic, Suryani (Assyrians) and Protestant Christians, and Jews. Although most of the population is Muslim, Turkey is a secular country and everyone has freedom of religion and beliefs. No one can be forced to participate in religious ceremonies or rites against their will and no blame can be attached to anyone because of their beliefs."

Most sources will note that there is no one official religion in Turkey and, although considered a Muslim state, has a separation between government and religion.

Answer 3

It is unclear what the question is asking. The Republic of Turkey has always been a secular country since it was founded in 1923. As a result, Turkey has no national religion, even though more than 90% of Turks consider themselves Muslims (either Sunnis or Alevis).

If it is asking when the area that became Turkey became majority-Muslim, this would have happened during the 16th and 17th centuries. This occurred because the Ottoman Empire passed laws that penalized remaining Christian and incentivized conversion to Islam.

Answer 4

It's complicated, but the common answer is YES.

When Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the modern Republic of Turkey, he created an irreligious state that he labeled as secular. An irreligious state is a state that is actively hostile to some or all forms of religion, like the Soviet Union and the P.R. China are. He created the Diyanet or Religious Affairs Ministry that actively regulated Islam inside of Turkey. The Diyanet did a number of things such as making official translations of the Qur'an into Turkish, writing the Friday sermons so they could be standardized across the country, and making sure that the various Imams in Turkey were following particular theological guidelines. Repeated disregarding of the Diyanet's authority would lead to detentions and arrests and this went for Islamists and Jihadists on the one hand and more liberal Sufi-inspired leaders on the other hand. This suppression of religious freedom for Muslims continued under Ataturk's successor, Inonu.

After World War II, Turkey became a lot less irreligious and much more secular in the American conception, e.g. where religion and state stand apart. The military saw its role as removing any overt religious influence on the state, but the Diyanet's authority was also relaxed to allow for more religious diversity in the country. This is the period in Turkish History that was the most secular in the Western conception of the term.

With the Rise of Conservatism in the Islamic World in the 1970s and 1980s, Islamist Parties in Turkey began to play a part in politics. In 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist Party, the AKP, finally came to power and began shifting Turkey towards an indirect theocracy. Sunni Islamic dialogue is turning more to religious ascendance than equality and the Alevis (which are the largest Non-Sunni minority at roughly 15% of the Turkish population) are targeted for persecution with the government's acceptance. Anti-Semitism is also rampant in Turkey and endorsed by the AKP. Christians in Turkey are finding their situation similarly worsen, but not to the degree that Alevis and Jews are facing. Although it will take a much stronger shift to make Turkey the kind of indirect theocracy that Saudi Arabia is, Turkey is slowly moving in that direction.

Answer 5

NO. Turkey is a democracy (although it is somewhere between a liberal democracy and an illiberal democracy at this point in time).

Answer 6

Practically, yes.