Turkey: How Islamic nationalism has curtailed freedoms and become a tool for exclusion

The arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, on March 19 has put a spotlight on the state of democracy in Turkey. It marks a possible turning point in the gradual dismantling of the country’s secular and democratic pillars.

At its founding in 1923, the Republic of Turkey was established as a secular state under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Secularism was seen as essential to modern development, as it decoupled state power structures from religious authorities.

However, recent studies demonstrate that this separation has become weaker since the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, came to power in 2002.

Turkish politics researcher Jenny White notes that, under the AKP, Islam has moved from occupying a private space to becoming a tool of political legitimacy under the AKP. In her 2014 book Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks, she explores how the AKP has promoted a national-religious identity as an alternative to traditional republican secularism.

This transformation of secularism in Turkey has also been accompanied by an overhaul of national identity. According to a study by the Brookings Institution, Erdoğan’s government has promoted a religious and conservative vision of what it means to be Turkish. This has weakened the republican pillars on which the country was founded over a century ago.

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