Volume 42 | Number 1 Fall 2006
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II. Secularism Generally and the Turkish Version
First, this Part defines secularism and describes the characteristics of a secular government. Second, it analyzes the Turkish version of secularism. Finally, it examines, by focusing on Turkey’s unique context, the reasons behind the strict version of secularism that Turkey has implemented.
A. Definition and Characteristics of Secularism
The most common definition of secularism is the separation of religion and state.19 Nonetheless, this narrow definition does not encompass many important characteristics of a secular government. First, in secular regimes, sovereignty belongs to the nation and not to a divine body.20 Since sovereignty belongs to a divine power in theocratic regimes, like the former Ottoman Empire, going against the government is equivalent to going against God.21 Second, religion is separate from state in a secular government.22 Religion does not affect the government’s affairs, meaning that laws and regulations are not based on religion.23 Third, a secular government is neutral towards all religions.24 As such, the regime cannot have an official religion and does not protect one religion over another.25 Likewise, all individuals, irrespective of their religion, are equal before the law.26
Fourth, a secular regime requires the education and the legal systems to be secular.27 The legal system does not contain laws based on religion, and the education system is based on logic and science, not religion or dogmas.28 Fifth, a secular government requires freedom of religion and conscience.29 Thus, secularism does not mean the absence of religion from society. Individuals are free to exercise their religions and manifest their religious beliefs in both the private and the public sphere.30 Finally, a secular regime is based on pluralism, which requires the government’s respect for all religions and religious beliefs.31 It is important to note that the foregoing characteristics describe a theoretically perfect secular government, which, to our knowledge, does not exist.
B. The Turkish Version of Secularism
The Turkish version of secularism implements most of the foregoing characteristics of a secular government, while, due to Turkey’s unique context,32 restricts some of the freedoms that a perfectly secular government would normally afford. The Turkish word for secularism (laik) and the concept of Turkish secularism were adopted from the French principle of secularism (laïcité).33 France and Turkey apply a version of secularism that is stricter than the version that most Western nations, including the United States, have implemented.34
If one thinks of secularism as two adjacent but separate fenced-off areas, the Western notion of secularism as a general matter allows neither the state nor religion to violate the territory of the other. In contrast, in the Turkish version of secularism, the state can access and regulate the fenced-off area of religion, whereas religion does not have the same reciprocal right. One example of such an action on the part of the state is the ban against the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in Turkish educational institutions.35 The purpose of this system is to ensure that religion does not completely dominate the state like it did less than ninety years ago.
Because of the differences between the Western and Turkish principles of secularism, the role that religion plays in most Western governments may seem appalling to those not accustomed to it. One of the authors of this Article, Ozan O. Varol, is a native of Turkey who lived in Turkey for seventeen years. Being accustomed to the Turkish version of secularism, it was, at first, very bizarre for him to hear the President of the United States say “God bless America” at the end of his addresses to the nation; see “In God We Trust” on American currency; see Congressmen and Supreme Court Justices take oaths while placing their hands on the Bible; hear “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance; and see the Justices of the Supreme Court attend the “Red Mass” annually before the first day the Court is in session.36 As the rest of this Article illustrates, none of the foregoing American traditions can be implemented under the Turkish version of secularism.
C. The Unique Context of the Republic of Turkey
The strict version of secularism in Turkey is necessary due to its historical, geographical, and demographical context. First, and foremost, Turkey’s fundamentalist history has necessitated the implementation of certain safeguards, like secularism, to protect the democratic order of the Republic. In one of its decisions regarding secularism, the Turkish Constitutional Court stated that “secularism ha[s] acquired constitutional status by reason of the historical experience of the country and the particularities of Islam compared to other religions; secularism [is] an essential condition for democracy and act[s] as a guarantor of freedom of religion and of equality before the law.”37 Less than ninety years ago during the reign of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor to the modern-day Turkey, the country was home to arguably the most fundamentalist regime in the world.38 When the Republic of Turkey was formed, the founders implemented a number of precautions, the most important of which is secularism, to prevent Islamic fundamentalism from ever dominating the governmental system again.
Similar restrictions appear in other nations around the world whose histories have required the adoption of certain protections to safeguard their regimes. For example, Germany has taken legal precautions that restrict certain rights and freedoms to ensure that totalitarian Nazis will never rule the country again.39 Italy has laws to prevent fascism from dominating their regime.40 Rwanda has provisions in its Constitution to prevent genocide.41 The United States has affirmative-action laws, which attempt to remedy the effects of past and present discrimination against racial minorities.42 Likewise, the strict secular system of Turkey protects freedom and democracy, both of which used to be myths under the rule of the Ottoman Empire less than ninety years ago.
Geographically, Turkey is surrounded by some of the most fundamentalist regimes in the world, like Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran. In countries bordering Turkey, women are stoned to death for having sexual intercourse out of wedlock, people’s hands are cut off for committing burglary, and mass killings occur based on religion.43 One of the main reasons why Turkey has not been a part of the inhumanity that dominates most of the Middle East is its strict secular regime. Because secularism does not allow religion-based laws in the legal system, criminal punishments based on Islam cannot be a part of Turkish law.
Demographically, ninety-nine percent of Turkey’s population is Muslim,44 making the country prone to the use of religion as a tool by political parties. Indeed, so far in Turkey’s legal history, the Turkish Constitutional Court has dissolved four political parties for violating the principles of secularism and/or advocating the violent overthrow of the secular regime.45 For example, in 2003, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), sitting in Grand Chamber, or en banc, unanimously (18–0) held that Turkey did not violate Article 11 on Freedom of Association of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Convention) when the Turkish Constitutional Court dissolved the Islamist Welfare Party (Refah Partisi).46
The ECHR outlined a great amount of evidence demonstrating the credible and pending threat that the Welfare Party posed to the secular and democratic order of the Republic. For example, while advocating a change in the Republic’s regime, the leader of the Welfare Party, Necmettin Erbakan, stated: “[But] will the transition be peaceful or violent; will it be achieved harmoniously or by bloodshed?”47 Mr. Erbakan also advocated the implementation of a plurality of legal systems based on an individual’s religion.48 Likewise, Hasan Huseyin Ceylan, a member of the Welfare Party, stated: “If you want the solution, it’s sharia.”49 Sevki Yilmaz, another member of the Welfare Party, had “issued a clear call to wage a jihad [holy war] and had argued for the introduction of Islamic law.”50 Finally, in one of his speeches in the Parliament, Ibrahim Halil Celik, another Welfare Party member, declared: “I too would like blood to flow . . . . I will fight to the end to introduce sharia.”51
The foregoing is only a small sample of the statements that Welfare Party members made, calling for a replacement of the secular order with Shari’a. These statements demonstrate that certain political parties in Turkey have used and will continue to use religion in their agendas to deceive and gain the support of the majority-Muslim population. Thus, the strict secular system of Turkey is a safeguard that protects the democratic order of the Republic against political parties that want to take advantage of sacred religious beliefs.
The reasons behind the strict secular system in Turkey are important to keep in mind throughout this Article. Everything from the reforms that led to the foundation of the Republic52 to the reasons behind the current ban on the wearing of Islamic headscarves in all educational institutions53 should be viewed in connection with the unique context of Turkey. Even though certain legal restrictions this Article discusses may seem excessive from a Western point of view, they are, for the most part, necessary safeguards to protect the secular and democratic order of the Turkish Republic. Indeed, in light of the unique context of Turkey, the Grand Chamber of the ECHR, in a 16–1 decision, approved the Turkish notion of secularism and found it to be “consistent with the values underpinning” the Convention.54
This Part provided a general overview of the principle of secularism and of the Turkish version of secularism in the unique context of Turkey. The rest of the Article traces the development of secularism throughout Turkey’s history. To that effect, the next Part examines the role of religion in the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor to the modern-day Republic of Turkey, in order to provide a background for the secular reforms that followed the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.