Necmettin Erbakan's Views on Turkey's Modernisation Process

Abstract

This paper highlights Necmettin Erbakan’s views on Turkey’s modernisation process. Erbakan, the prime minister of the Republic of Turkey from 1996 to 1997, is an influential politician, engineer, academic, and intellectual. Also, Erbakan is the first devout president in the history of the Republic of Turkey. He examined Turkish modernisation, which he saw as one of Turkey's most important problems, and made important studies on this subject. He thought that the main mistake made in the Turkish modernisation process was to “imitate the West”. Therefore, he thought that while Turkey wanted to modernise, it became Westernised, that is, modernisation and Westernisation were confused with each other in Turkey. This idea of his reveals that Turkey has taken very concrete steps towards Westernisation and, as a result, has lost the characteristics of traditional Turkish and Islamic culture. Trying to modernise by imitating the West, based on Erbakan's ideas, is a foreign model for the Turkish people who adhere to Islamic identity and values. Therefore, this study suggests that there should be a more inclusive alternative modernisation model for the Turkish nation based on Erbakan's ideas.