RELIGION IN TURKISH MODERNIZATION

ALİ AĞCAKULU

ABSTRACT

This study aims to reveal Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s religious thoughts and his approach
to Islam, as well as the effect of his approach on the secularization process in Turkey.
Secularization stands as the most significant feature of modernization in Turkey, which
started during the Reform Era and continued at the time of the foundation of the Republic,
and as the most influential factor in re-shaping the religious and political relationships
in Turkey. With this study, the authoritarian governance style adopted by Atatürk has
been analyzed, and the authoritarian regimes in Russia and Italy have been observed
to play a role in adoption of authoritarianism by Atatürk. Authoritarian approaches by
Abdülhamid II, the Committee of Union and Progress, and Rousseau have also been
studied in terms of their influence on Atatürk. The religious life of Atatürk has then
been analyzed to reveal that he embraced a secular life. Atatürk had a negative opinion
of Islam due to certain activities carried out by some Islamists during the final days of
the Ottoman Period and due to their anti-national preferences at the time of the War of
Independence. He believed that Islam was standing in the way of progress. On the other
hand, he used religion for his own political purposes. He was influenced by religious
thoughts of Ahmed Rıza, Abdullah Cevdet and Ziya Gökalp, and he planned to use the
spiritual power of religion by keeping it under government’s control. Atatürk adopted
a belief that is similar to deism as he was influenced by thoughts of Religion of Nature.
His belief and his religious preferences had an effect on his political preferences. That
is the reason, the new government system was embodied by his thoughts. Planning to
use the power of religion to ensure social order and progress, Atatürk made religious
reforms so as to establish a new and modern religious understanding. Religion stands
in the center of these reforms implemented by him, through which he aimed to bring
forward a new and modern Islamic approach that is controlled by and subservient to
government, is Turkicized, and has a deist character. In order to achieve his goal, he
founded the Directorate of Religious Affairs, and made reforms in educational, legal and