“Secularism”: A Key to Turkish Politics

Abstract

Abstract: In posing Serif Mardin’s question of Turkey’s center-periphery relations in a revised version, this article considers secularism to be a key to understanding Turkish politics. It views the confrontation between secularists and Islamists in the light of Turkey’s center-periphery polarization and identifies the secularist doctrine of Kemalism as a major obstacle to democratic political change. The protection of Turkey’s secular order developed into the ideological cornerstone of Kemalist rule, which ranks prime amongst the ideological tools used to justify the political supremacy of the Turkish armed forces. Examining the interrelation between secularism and the almost religious cult around Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the article concludes that the increasing visibility of Islamic symbols and practices in Turkey is a logical consequence of the country’s current European Union(EU) reform process, rather than a sign of Turkey’s deviation from its political and societal modernization process.