Secularism is once again being debated in Turkey.
The subject, first raised a month ago by the leader of the opposition, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu - known to be an ardent defender of secularism -, then by the conservative president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is once again causing a stir. after an incident on a bus on November 6.
During this trip between Van and Izmir – more than 24 hours from east to west – the bus driver refused to give in to a passenger who demanded a stop while he said his prayers.
In a statement shared by its lawyer, the bus company recalled that Turkey is a secular country.
Indeed, the Turkish constitution provides that "sacred religious sentiments shall not be involved in state affairs and politics."
“It is not possible (…) to ignore the rights of other passengers who do not pray and who want to arrive on time at their destination so that a passenger can pray”, further defended the Oz Ercis company.
A response that has gone viral in this country with a Muslim majority but a secular tradition, where the subject is regularly propelled to the front of the stage.
It reappears this time with the approach of the next presidential election.
"It's a recurring subject, but much less significant than a few years ago," says Didier Billion, political scientist specializing in Turkey and deputy director of Iris (Institute of International and Strategic Relations), referring to the arrival in power of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP (Justice and Development Party) in 2002.
"At the time, the laity were extremely worried, convinced that secularism was going to be removed from the Constitution... There have been cyclical fixation points for twenty years, but we are now at a time when the things have unraveled."
A debate today relaxed from the point of view of secular parties, mainly due to political inclinations.
Political recovery
Less than six months before the presidential election, it is the CHP (Republican People's Party, social democrat) - an opposition party, Kemalist and openly secular - which has revived the debate on secularism.
He proposed, last October, to let go of the port of the veil.
"We've made mistakes in the past about the veil... It's time to put this issue behind us," party leader Kemal Kiliçdaroglu said in a barely disguised foot appeal to more conservative voters. traditionally committed to the cause of Erdogan's AKP.
"That a Kemalist, secularist, wants to present this type of law is an indicator that the debates in Turkey are no longer the same as those of twenty years ago in terms of secularism", comments Didier Billion.
Almost a hundred years ago, when the Turkish Republic was founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the veil was banned in the public professional sector – administration, justice, hospitals and even universities.
A ban lifted ten years ago by Erdogan's conservative party which, at the end of October, seeing the danger of letting the CHP walk on its toes and bite on the believing electorate, outbid proposing a referendum aimed at including the issue of the veil in the Constitution.
"If you have the courage, come, let's submit this to the referendum. (...) Let the Nation take the decision", launched the Turkish president to Kemal Kilicdaroglu during a televised intervention.
Use of religious identity referents in public discourse
Coming from political Islam, Recep Tayyip Erdogan first chose to move away from it to create the AKP, and assured in 2002 that he accepted the secular structure of the state.
Twenty years later, Erdogan's progress on the democratization front has "gave way to creeping authoritarianism and a policy of re-Islamizing society", says Turkish political scientist Ahmet Insel in his book "The New Turkey of Erdogan: From democratic dream to authoritarian drift".
A term of "re-Islamization" that Didier Billion does not share.
"Turkish society has not been Islamized, but Muslim for several centuries," he said, deeming society "practicing, pious and very conservative on the whole."
Moreover, the researcher specifies that the Turkish president has never mentioned the application of any religious law in Turkey.
"One day, one of the AKP officials had expressed the need to establish religious laws to organize the life of society, and was quickly put back in his goals by Erdogan and other leaders of the party".
However, it is difficult not to note a strengthening of the use of Muslim religious identity referents in public discourse.
It is moreover on this precise point that the decline of secularism in Turkey can be observed.
"Erdogan constantly refers to Islam, to the name of god, to the prophet, etc. This is completely new in Turkey", analyzes Didier Billion.
"Until twenty years ago, never, ever, did political speeches take up religious identity referents: a shift has taken place, and today Turkish society mainly accepts the religious fact".
However, on social networks, in the wake of the bus affair, many messages of support have flourished, congratulating the company, sometimes described as "the last bastion of secularism" - even the CHP is accused of having " renounced".
“Let Oz Erciş go public! God bless the travel agency,” one Twitter user wrote;
"Oz Ercis Travel, the last bastion of secularism!"
;
"From now on, I'll go everywhere with you. If you don't have an expedition to where I'm going, I'll go to where you have an expedition...", can we read again.
Faced with such reactions, it seems obvious that a certain part of society no longer supports the conservative order maintained by President Erdogan.
"This resonates with what is happening in many other countries where religion is used for reactionary ends", develops the deputy director of Iris, bringing the example of Turkey closer to Brazil, the United States or again to Poland.
"It is open to criticism, but the weight of religion operates more in terms of cultural fact than in terms of the imposition of practices, and even less in terms of religious or Sharia laws".
If a large part of society resists, the specialist in Turkey evokes a powerful conservative bloc.
"All of Erdogan's political intelligence is to have understood for twenty years that sociologically there is a conservative majority in Turkey. So he is surfing on that and that is why he has won so many elections (14, in total, Editor's note)".
>> To see - Turkey: society torn between religion and secularism
Laiklik, or the "control of religion by public authorities"
In the case of the bus company, contrary to the reactions of Internet users that some could qualify as "secular", some condemn the reaction of the company.
"It's their choice to be irreligious, but they shouldn't try to interfere with how a Muslim worships," said one Twitter user.
The debate around the concept of secularism seems quite similar to those that can rage in France.
On the definition of such a principle, and its practical illustrations (prayer, wearing the veil...).
The word used in Turkish, "laiklik", is also inspired by French, specifies Didier Billion.
However, he says, Turkish secularism is totally different from French secularism.
"In France, there is a clear separation of the Church and political life and institutions, it is the law of 1905", recalls the political scientist.
"In Turkey, the conception of secularism is rather a kind of control of the religious fact by the public authorities, and that since the beginning of the Republic in 1923."
>> To read: The 1905 law, the founding text of "French-style" secularism
To illustrate this striking difference, there is no better example than the existence of the Diyanet.
This powerful administration - the Presidency of Religious Affairs - is placed under the authority of the President of the Turkish Republic.
With some 140,000 civil servants and a budget of 1.2 billion euros, it deals with the management of imams (salaried by the State), gives the theme of the sermon delivered in mosques on Friday, the day of great prayer for Muslims, and ensures the dissemination of Turkish Islam throughout the world, in particular by sending imams abroad.
"The debates therefore arise in a different way in Turkey and in France, even if there are common points, in particular concerning the debate on the wearing of the veil", repeats Didier Billion.
"There are common points, but in a totally different cultural environment: France is not a culturally Muslim country, whereas Turkey has been for centuries."
Moreover, notes the specialist in Turkey, the multiplication of religious political referents by Erdogan responds to a desire to "recall the greatness of the Ottoman Empire".
The reopening of the Hagia Sophia to Muslim worship in July 2020 was part of this logic.
Initially a place of Orthodox worship, the Hagia Sophia was then dedicated to Muslim worship after the conquest of Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) in 1453, then returned to cultural activities, in the artistic sense, from the 1920s.
>> The Hagia Sophia, the "wonder of wonders" with three lives
Emblematic monument of Istanbul, symbol of the secular republic wanted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Hagia Sophia became a mosque after a decree of the Turkish Council of State.
A decision justified by Erdogan by the need for Turkey to "reclaim its past, and its history in its religious dimension", quotes Didier Billion.
In a column published in Le Monde, the Turkish writer Nedim Gürsel considered this decision as yet another sign of the decline of secularism in his country of origin.
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