After the First World War, the humiliating Sevre Treaty was imposed on the defeated Turks on every front. Turkey's independence was limited. The control of the capital, Constantinople, passed into the hands of the Allies, and their authority was established in the administration. In the meantime, the Greeks occupied several areas in Turkey, such as Smyrna, Brusa, and Opium. Then it was moving further inwards. Under the leadership of Mostafa Kamal, the nationalist Turks liberated the cities of Opium, Brusa and Smyrna from the Greeks. Over time, Turkish nationalists grew stronger, with Mustafa Kemal coming to power as President of Turkey after the end of the Turkish Sultanate in 1922.
As president, Mustafa Kemal began to control the process of nation-building in Turkey, taking a number of reformist measures to Europeanize the Turkish nation. One of his most talked about reforms was the abolition of the caliphate and the establishment of Turkey as a secular state. In Muslim-majority Turkey, he has had to overcome many obstacles to include secularism in the nation-building process. The debate over those processes did not stop eight decades after his death.
Secularism in Mostafa Kamal's Turkey
In the Middle Ages, the Church emerged as a rival state in Europe. In exchange for money, they widely established the idea of atonement for human beings, introducing the practice of giving gifts to church priests. As the amount of property under the church increased over time, war broke out between different churches over control of the property. As a result, when the European Renaissance began to develop, the idea was created that for a proper state structure there was a need to limit the power of the Church, to reduce the influence of religious institutions.
Then there was the Atlantic Revolution centered on the idea of the Renaissance, and Latin American countries succeeded in the independence movement. Throughout the nineteenth century, there has been a constitutional evolution in various European countries. With this evolution has developed the idea of equality, secularism has taken place as one of the basic foundations of the modern nation-state. According to the United States-based National Secular Society, secularism has three basic foundations.
First, to keep the state structure out of the influence of religion and religious institutions and to have clear differences in the structure and function of the two types of institutions. That is, religious institutions cannot press for a change in state policy at will, nor can they use religious identity to influence state activity.
Second, every citizen living in the state will have the opportunity to practice his or her beliefs freely, as well as his or her own disbelief. Just as the state will give a believer the opportunity to practice his religion, so will a non-believer be guaranteed political security. Minority or majority, people of every religion will have the opportunity to practice their religion freely.
Third, the state will ensure equality among people of all faiths, equal benefits for believers and non-believers. No one will get additional state benefits due to religious identity, nor will anyone be deprived of state benefits and security for the same reason.
Shortly after Mustafa Kemal took office, Turkey adopted secularism as one of the cornerstones of democracy. Its secularism, on the one hand, has made Turkey known as a hard-secular country, and on the other, it has created boundless controversy.
The End of the Caliphate
The last of the four caliphates of Islam was that of the Ottomans, lasting about six hundred years. Reformists have been gaining strength in Turkey since the nineteenth century. The position of the Ottoman sultans as caliphs began to be questioned in the internal conflicts of the Ottomans. Before the First World War, Turkey was on the path of constitutional monarchy, and the power of the emperor was limited. In the First World War, the fifth ruler, Muhammad, brought unlimited suffering to Turkey, and after the war, the sixth ruler, Muhammad, went against the nationalists and tried to stay in power using the Allies.
The treaty of the Sultan's humiliating saver further weakened the position of Sultan Muhammad VI. The rise of nationalists under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal turned Turkey into a democracy and the Sultanate was abolished. In the democratic constitution of 1923, the sultanate was abolished and constitutional democracy was created. As a result, Sultan Abdul Majed became the only caliph to hold a number of decorative positions. The following year, Mustafa Kemal abolished the post of caliph out of a desire to create a modern Turkey.
Turkey where through the Position of Calipha
Unsurprisingly Sunni was established as the leader of the Muslim world, had the opportunity to exert its influence in all corners of the Muslim world, the extent to which the abolition of the caliphate was a realistic decision cannot be determined by the current political context. The Kurds revolted to retain the caliphate, there was a caliphate movement in India, and supporters of the caliphate held a conference in Egypt. However, the failure of these initiatives indicates that the caliphate did not have a political reality in the context of the time.
Mostafa Kamal's Turkey started its journey towards modern Turkey through the abolition of Khilafah. The state structure began to be freed from religious influence. Turkey was known as a religious state for a long time, Mustafa Kemal started the formation of a modern nation-state in Turkey out of that identity. Secularism is accepted as one of the basic foundations of the state.
Limiting the Power of the Ulama
As a religious state, Turkey's judiciary was governed by Islamic law, interpreted by ulama who specialize in Islamic law. In his dream of building a modern nation-state, Bivore Mostafa Kamal abolished the Islamic judiciary, introduced civil law in Switzerland and criminal law in Italy. Germany followed trade law. The new law moves away from the Islamic judiciary, changing the legal position on issues such as Turkey, divorce, and polygamy.
With the introduction of European law, Mustafa Kemal began to limit the power of the ulama, and the position of Shaykh-ul-Islam, the interpreter of religious law, was abolished. In addition to this, the Ministry of Religious Law was abolished and the long-running religious educational institutions were closed down. Due to lack of legal basis, religious courts are automatically abolished.
Out of the framework of religious law, by establishing European law, Kamal Atatুrk gave Turkish women much more freedom. The patriarchal Turkish society created an opportunity for women to create a position. State-based inequality between men and women is eliminated, creating opportunities for both parties to enjoy equal state benefits. One of the basic tenets of secularism is not to discriminate in the service of the state because of one's religious or other identity. Mostafa Kamal was able to ensure that in Turkey through legal changes.
Abolish Islam as the State Religion
People in different parts of the world consider religious identity as their main identity. Seeing this identity as part of social identity, sometimes as national identity. In the age of nation-states, people from different parts of the world want the recognition of this religious identity through the constitution. The constitution generally fixes the relationship between religion and state life. But, this religious recognition institutionalizes a particular religion, giving people of a particular religion additional benefits through state law. This benefit, given to people of a particular religion, usually goes to the homes of the majority, depriving minorities of their state and political rights.
Islam was included as a state religion in Turkey in 1924. Later, in April 1928, Mustafa Kemal proposed to amend the constitution, repealing the provisions on state religion. However, religion still has to be mentioned in Turkey's national identity card.
Statistics show that Sunni Muslims are the majority in Turkey. This majority is above 90 percent, there are followers of some other sects. Taken together, Sunni Muslims make up 99.8 percent of the population, according to official figures. Even though there are small minority groups, the abolition of state religion creates an opportunity for the state to get equal benefits between the majority and the minority.
Secular Education System
Mostafa Kamal introduced the Gregorian calendar instead of the Arabic calendar, taking Turkey out of the religious atmosphere, and started writing in Latin instead of Arabic. In keeping with Europe, the weekly holiday was changed from Friday to Sunday. But Mustafa Kemal felt that secularism needed to be propagated at every stage of the state and in social life, along with state policy, without a religiously influential education system. With this goal in mind, Mustafa Kemal closed down religious educational institutions, abolished the madrasa education system through the Education Integration Act of 1924 and brought the education system under the Ministry of Education. In the thirties, religious education was first excluded from urban schools, and later from rural schools as well.
By closing down religious educational institutions on the pretext of building a secular society, Mustafa Kemal has in fact violated the basic values of democracy, imposing state authoritarianism on people's choice of education. As a citizen of a democratic country, every Turk has the right to receive the education of his choice, and to acquire religious knowledge, as well as state and moral legitimacy. In establishing the Turkey of his dreams, Mustafa Kemal has deprived the citizens of this democratic right, in establishing himself as a banyan tree, he has deprived the citizens of their political rights. Although Mustafa Kemal did this in the name of secularism, according to the interpretation of the National Secular Society, theoretical secularism has little to do with it.
Prohibition of Curtains
Every religion has some basic provisions, different ways of living. The veil system is such a provision of Islam. Like other conservative societies, the practice of the veil was also practiced in Turkish society, the veil was established as part of social values.
Mostafa Kamal began to present the veil as a custom imposed by the patriarchal conservative Turkish society on women. In his 1925 Kastannu speech, Bivore Mostafa Kamal, in his dream of building a modern Turkey, referred to the practice of the veil as an insult to a civilized nation. At the People's Party conference in 1935, Mostafa Kamal tried to ban the veil system by law. Despite the failure of the service, the patronage began to be suppressed under state patronage in Turkish state and social life. Employment could not be obtained by following the veil system in state institutions, the veil system was unwrittenly prohibited even for women working in the media.
For Mustafa Kemal's reformism against the veil, many tried to make Turkey a hard-secular country. But, first, through the persecution of the veil, Mustafa Kemal’s Turkey has bound a community to their religion, hurting religious freedom. Religious freedom is one of the foundations of secularism. Second, Mustafa Kemal has usurped civil rights and freedom of dress through state-sponsored persecution of the veil. There is no scope to justify the attempt to oppress the veil with the argument of secularism.
Turkish instead of Arabic in the Prayers of Muslims
In establishing a secular state, Mustafa Kemal's government took a number of initiatives to bridge Turkey's cultural gap with the West, which are directly anti-Islamic.
First, it was made compulsory in Turkey to deliver sermons in Turkish instead of Arabic. Instead of the traditional khutbah, he arranged for the appointment of modern-minded staff through the Ministry of Religion to provide modern and philosophical interpretations of religious questions. Second, the rules for conducting all prayers in Turkish were issued, and the use of Arabic was prohibited. Third, in order to make prayers as attractive and inspiring as in Christian places of worship, Mustafa Kemal's government has made rules for the use of musical instruments, and rules for arranging singers.
Secular Turkey
Mostafa Kamal's government took many aggressive steps to establish secularism in the state structure as well as in social life. Deprived of civil rights in the name of secularism, obstructed the opportunity for citizens to exercise their political rights. Although the example of the deprivation of the rights of minorities for religious reasons has never been in the spotlight in Turkey, Mustafa Kemal tried to keep pace with the West through many anti-Islamic measures, trying to get Turkey out of the religious atmosphere. Mostafa Kamal's attempt was not successful, but many of his political successes have been associated with numerous controversies, criticism has been added.
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