THE MYTH OF TURKISH SECULARISM

[Yervant1]

THE MYTH OF TURKISH SECULARISM

http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/12/the-myth-of-turkish-secularism/
by David Boyajian / December 16th, 2013

Turkey is a secular state. So claim its government and nearly all
mainstream Western media. They are mistaken.

In civilized, democratic countries, secularism means not only a
respectful separation between church and state but also freedom of
religion. As we shall demonstrate, Turkish policies have long been
the antithesis of secularism.

The Turkish government massively supports and funds Islam -
specifically Sunni Islam - inside the country. Turkey simultaneously
represses religions such as Alevism, and bullies and persecutes
indigenous Christians, most of whom it liquidated in 20th century
genocides. Moreover, it uses Islam to project Turkish political power
into Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. Turkey's system is more properly
termed State Islam.

This article is not a criticism of Islam or its faithful. We respect
both. Turkey's secularism myth, nevertheless, cries out to be laid
bare.

State Islam

The Directorate of Religious Affairs - known as the Diyanet - is
the government body that represents and directs all of Sunni Islam
in Turkey. Created in 1924, a year after the Republic of Turkey
was formed, the Diyanet is enshrined in Article 136 of the Turkish
Constitution. The Diyanet is huge and powerful. Operating under
the Prime Minister, it employs about 100,000. All Sunni clergy are
salaried civil servants of the Diyanet.

The Diyanet's $2 billion annual outlay exceeds the combined budgets
of Turkey's Foreign, Energy, and Environmental Ministries. By law a
political party can be dissolved if it dares to advocate the Diyanet's
abolition.

Until recently, the Diyanet wrote all the sermons for its clergy,
but reportedly now sometimes allows them to write their own, though
their contents are controlled.

Would the U.S. - or any democratic Western country - be termed
"secular" if it funded a huge Christian government agency that employed
all Christian clergy and controlled their sermons? Obviously not.

Who owns Turkey's 80,000 mosques? It's not always clear. Even many
Turks wonder. For sure, however, the Diyanet controls all mosques.

(Shiite Muslims represent only about 3% of Turkey's 80 million people
and are largely independent of the Diyanet.)

Two large mosques to be built on Istanbul's Camlica Hill and Taksim
Squareare personal projects of Prime Minister Erdogan. The government
is apparently paying most of the costs, not something a secular state
would do.

The Diyanet operates not only in Turkey but worldwide. Turkish
foreign policy and the Diyanet are intertwined. The latter promotes
the country's political influence abroad.

Worldwide Reach

The Diyanet has a Foreign Affairs department that sends religious
consultants not only into Muslim countries, such as those in Central
Asia and Africa, but also into the United States, France, Germany,
Great Britain, Sweden, and other European countries.

Indeed, some Turkish embassies and consulates have a religious affairs
department and attaches that work with local Diyanet representatives.

Turkey is very active, for instance, in the Netherlands where it
reportedly pays the salaries of the Diyanet-affiliated Dutch Islamic
Foundation's staff.

In partnership with Turkey's Religious Foundation, the Diyanet
has in the last two decades constructed or renovated mosques in
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, northern Cyprus, Japan, Kazakhstan,
Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and elsewhere.

A $100 million, 15-acre Turkish American Culture and Civilization
Center(TACCC), which includes a large mosque, is being built in
Lanham, Maryland, 14 miles from Washington, D.C. It is "a project of
the government of Turkey" and the Turkish American Community Center.

The latter's older mosque is "related to the Republic of Turkey and
the Department of Religious Affairs [Diyanet]." Several months ago,
PM Erdogan placed a ceremonial stone at the TACCC construction site.

No truly secular state would do these things. Nor would it persecute
persons of other religions.

Religious Repression

Last year the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF), established by Congress, placed Turkey in its worst category,
a "Country of Particular Concern," alongside Burma, China, Pakistan,
and a dozen others.

Turkey, noted the USCIRF, "significantly restricts religious freedom,
especially for non-Muslim religious minority communities - including
the Greek, Armenian, and Syriac Orthodox Churches, the Roman Catholic
and Protestant Churches, and the Jewish community."

Restrictions that "deny non-Muslim communities the rights to train
clergy, offer religious education, and own and maintain places of
worship, have led to their decline, and in some cases their virtual
disappearance."

Such mistreatment of Christians, numbering only about 100,000, is
particularly reprehensible given that Turkey carried out genocide
from 1915 to 1923 against millions of indigenous Christian Armenians,
Greeks, and Syriacs, including many Catholics and Protestants.

The persecution of non-Muslims continued even after the Turkish
Republic came about in 1923. The infamous Capital Tax (Varlik Vergisi)
program during WW II, as but one example, deliberately taxed Christians
and Jews at extortionate rates that often exceeded their income. Men
were sent to labor camps in the interior when unable to pay. Families
were bankrupted. Only an international outcry stopped the program.

Thousands of Christian churches, schools, hospitals, orphanages,
cemeteries, and other community properties have been continually
seized by Turkey in the past several decades.

Though Turkey has recently returned some of these properties under
international pressure, the vast majority has not been, and probably
will not be, returned.

Countless ancient Armenian churches and monasteries, such as Saint
Mark's (Nshan) in Sivas, have been deliberately destroyed, sometimes
with explosives. Others serve as stables. Earlier this year in
the cities of Iznik and Trabzon, old Greek churches were converted
to mosques.

Alevism is a religion that has some 10 to 20 million adherents in
Turkey. Complex and somewhat mysterious, it contains elements of Shia
Islam, Sufism, paganism, and other spiritual and religious traditions.

Alevis worship in houses called cemevis, not mosques. Alevis and
cemevis are not recognized by the Turkish government. Alevis complain
bitterly, to little avail.

Alevis have long been the victims of discrimination and even violent
attacks, such as in Sivas in 1993 when 35 leading Alevis were murdered
by mobs, and most recently this year in Ankara, when police fired
tear-gas at protesting Alevis.

"Turkey may look like a secular state on paper," says Izzettin Dogan,
a leading Alevi, "but in terms of international law it is actually
a Sunni Islamic state." He is correct, but most of the outside world
is oblivious to voices such as his.

True Secularism

Some Turks feel that their country is secular because the Diyanet's
hegemony moderates Islam against extremist tendencies. There may be
some truth to that.

But as secularism must include a respectful distance between religion
and state, Turkey would still not qualify. Along with Turkey's domestic
religious repression, and employing the Diyanet in foreign policy,
the claim of secularism is simply fallacious.

The Turkish government is in full-blown denial about secularism and
religious freedom, as evidenced by PM Erdogan's preposterous claim two
years ago: "Turkey is a secular state where all religions are equal."

If Turkey is ever to be secular, it must allow the free exercise of all
religions - including Islam - and guarantee the rights of the faithful
to be free from harassment and compulsion. The Turkish government's
acknowledgement of its past and present wrongs, especially to the
non-Turkish and non-Muslim communities, and making genuine amends,
must be part of this process.

Until then - particularly in the West - mainstream media, governments,
religious leaders, academicians, and political analysts should cease
swallowing Turkey's fraudulent claim of secularism.

David Boyajian is a freelance journalist.