Nevzet Çelik

Turkish secularism called laiklik which derived from the French laïc term, was transferred from Frances’ laïcité in the late Ottoman period via the Young Turks to achieve western modernization. The implementation of the laik institutions in Turkey, contrary to the secularism in the United States, and laïcité in France, did not originate from its own historical, social, and political circumstances. To create a new form of the western secular model onto the framework of the new Republic of Turkey, laiklik has articulated as a political Kemalist doctrine to protect itself and, especially translates itself to the totalitarian context. This article argues that Turkey’s own secular model laiklik was not aimed at the separation of religion and state but first to control it and finally to try to minimize it from the public sphere.