Though it isn’t the oldest religion in the country, Islam is a significant contributor to this bold blend. Turkey has numerous important sites for Judaism and Christianity, being one of the birth places of the latter. Religious freedom conditions in Turkey remain worrisome, with the perpetuation of restrictive and intrusive governmental policies on religious practice and a marked increase in incidents of vandalism and societal violence against religious minorities. This characteristic has helped form quite a unique society, one built upon juxtaposed ideas—antiquity and modernity, East and West, secularism and religion. There were between 3 and 4 million Christians in what is now Turkey—around 20 percent of the total population. [65] As a specific incarnation of an otherwise abstract principle, it accrued symbolic importance among both proponents and opponents of secularism and became the subject of various legal challenges[66] before being dismantled in a series of legislative acts from 2010 to 2017.[67]. [117][118][119] This redesignation is controversial, invoking condemnation from the Turkish opposition, UNESCO, the World Council of Churches, the International Association of Byzantine Studies, and many international leaders. Secularism focuses on human reason rather than divine inspiration to resolve po-litical or social issues2 and is one of the most important principles of Turkey is also a member of the European Convention on Human Rights Committee which dictates European standards in freedom of religion in Turkey. Around 20% of Alevis are Kurds and 25% of Kurds in Turkey are Alevis. Islam is the religion of the majority of Turks although the state is fiercely secular. Christian minorities in Turkey and their estimated populations include the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople (65,000), Latin Catholicism (20,000), the Syriac Orthodox Church (15,000), the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch (10,000), Chaldean Catholicism (8,000), Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (5,000), the Syriac Catholic Church (2,000), and the Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East (1,500). [14] Most Muslims in Turkey are Sunnis forming about 80.5%, and Shia-Aleviler (Alevis, Ja'faris, Alawites) denominations in total form about 16.5% of the Muslim population. "[132], An early April 2018 report of the Turkish Ministry of Education, titled "The Youth is Sliding to Deism", observed that an increasing number of pupils in İmam Hatip schools was abandoning Islam in favour of deism. Under current restrictions, only the Sunni Muslim community can legally operate institutions to train new clergy in Turkey for future leadership. Turks come from Hun empire and gender equility is the main cultural principle of Turks. Because of its location between Europe and the Middle East, Turkey has been home to major populations of Catholic, Orthodox Christian and Jewish residents throughout its history. [50][51][52][53] According to Ipsos, which interviewed 17,180 adults across 22 countries poll's showed that 82% of Turkey was Muslim and 7% of those who were interviewed from Turkey followed no religion whereas 6% identified as "Spiritual but not religious". Similar to the aforementioned religious category, those who identify as "spiritual but not religious" make-up an estimated 6% of the Turkish population. Yet 98% of all Turks are Muslim. The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and Turkey is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights.[85]. In Turkish constitution it's declared that the country has no official religion. The word Sunni comes from Arabic word sunnah, which refers to the actions and sayings of Muhammad as depicted in his hadiths (reports). These numbers are lower among younger and more educated people. Religion in Turkey has played a significant role in the country’s arts, literature, architecture, attractions, and everyday life for centuries. ReligionFacts provides free, objective information on religion, world religions, comparative religion and religious topics. Islam is the largest religion in Turkey according to the state, with 99.8% of the population being initially registered by the state as Muslim, for anyone whose parents are not of any other officially recognised religion and the remaining 0.2% are Christians or adherents of other officially recognised religions like Judaism. And, though it isn’t the oldest religion in the country, Islam is a significant contributor to this bold blend. The pro-government newspaper Bugün ran a story stating "no one has the right to convert this society into a religious one, or the opposite." Turkish Society and Culture Islam. The law was sponsored by the ruling AKP. [100][101][102] Many see Turkish society moving towards a more hardline Islamic identity and country,[100][102] citing increasing religious criticisms against what is considered immoral behaviour and government policies seen as enforcing conservative Islamic morality, as well as the controversial blasphemy conviction of the pianist Fazıl Say for "insulting Islam" by retweeting a joke about the Islamic Friday prayer. [60][61], Turkey has a secular constitution, with no official state religion. In practice, Turkey only recognizes Greek, Armenian, and Jewish religious minorities. Despite its official secularism, the Turkish government includes the state agency of the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Turkish: Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı),[68] whose purpose is stated by law "to execute the works concerning the beliefs, worship, and ethics of Islam, enlighten the public about their religion, and administer the sacred worshiping places". The Patriarch was recognized as the religious and secular leader of all Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, and carried the title of milletbaşı or ethnarch as well as patriarch. Jews report being able to worship freely and their places of worship having the protection of the government when required. Turkey has been governed for most of the past two decades by a party steeped in political Islam. Hence it is not possible to call Shamanism a religion but a summation of ecstatic and therapeutic methods from the archaic ages on. The other religions in the country are Christianity, Judaism, and Ashkenazi. Turkey’s Alevis, a Muslim Minority, Fear a Policy of Denying Their Existence. [113] This also includes the censoring of images on television, usually implemented by blurring, historically implemented by CNBC-e as flower placement. The government strongly condemned the killing. [90] Prime Minister Erdoğan said that "When it comes to the question, 'Are you recognizing [him] as ecumenical? It is the only Muslim country without the state religion. Turkey. Most of them have immigrated to Europe, particularly Germany; those who remain reside primarily in villages in their former heartland of Tur Abdin. It has to be seen to be 'tough on infidels', this religion of peace is anything but! Surveys of the Turkish people also show a great support for maintaining secular lifestyles. To make Turkey a modern, Western-style, secular nation-state, Atatürk disestablished Islam as the state religion, adopted Western legal codes, and established a compulsory secular educational system in which all young Muslim citizens, regardless of ethnicity, were taught that they were ethnically Turkish and citizens of a Turkish nation-state. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (Patrik) is the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Turkey, and also serves as the spiritual leader of all Orthodox churches throughout the world. Antioch (modern Antakya), the city where "the disciples were first called Christians" according to the biblical Book of Acts, is located in modern Turkey, as are most of the areas visited by St. Paul during his missions. Islam is still a massively important part of Turkish culture, even though increasing numbers of Turks (and, in particular, of younger Turks living in the western part of the country) are becoming more secular and less strict in their observance of religion. 06/23/2017. [114][115][116] The 1934 decree was ruled to be unlawful under both Ottoman and Turkish law as Hagia Sophia's waqf, endowed by Sultan Mehmed, had designated the site a mosque; proponents of the decision argued the Hagia Sophia was the personal property of the sultan. The only trouble is that he has yet to make that happen for Turkey. The Epistle to the Galatians, Epistle to the Ephesians, Epistle to the Colossians, First Epistle of Peter, and Book of Revelation are addressed to recipients in the territory of modern Turkey. They believe that Muhammad died without appointing a successor and therefore elders decided to appoint Abu Bakr as the first Caliph (successor). However, currently all primary and secondary schools hold mandatory religion classes which mostly focus on the Sunni sect of Islam, though other religions are also covered briefly. Catholic Christians have also occasionally been subjected to violent societal attacks. This was perceived as a branding of the non-Muslim population of Turkey, especially the Greek Orthodox as "re-conquered subjects and second-class citizens". This project provides insight into the reconfiguration of secularism and the public role of religion worldwide through an empirical investigation of the varying practices and attitudes concerning the public role of Islam in Turkey. [107] The law became a Wedge issue in the public discourse,[108] culminating in an early effort to see the law overturned by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights failing in 2005 when the court deemed it legitimate in Leyla Şahin v. [14] Of that, 16% said they were "extremely religious", 39% said they were "somewhat religious", and 32% said they were "not religious". [86] Nevertheless, according to this report, the situation for Jews in Turkey is better than in other majority Muslim countries. [106], For most of the 20th century, Turkish law prohibited the wearing of headscarves and similar garments of religious symbolism in public governmental institutions. In 2006, the Armenian Patriarch submitted a proposal to the Minister of Education to enable his community to establish a faculty in the Armenian language at a state university with instruction by the Patriarch. "The Legal Status of the Ecumenical Patriarchate", "Turkey's delay in introducing protection for the rights of religious minorities", Population distribution and settlement in Turkey, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Religion_in_Turkey&oldid=1019763089, Articles with Turkish-language sources (tr), Articles with unsourced statements from June 2019, Articles containing Turkish-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Yes through the Diyanet mentioned in the Constitution (art.136), Only by local municipalities, not constutituonal. No political party can claim that it represents a form of religious belief; nevertheless, religious sensibilities are generally represented through conservative parties. Sevinc, K., Hood, R. W. Jr., Coleman, T. J. III, (2017). Turkey is a secular state with no official state religion and is in fact the only secular Islamic country in the world where religion has no place in the running of the state. Turkey, through the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), recognizes the civil, political, and cultural rights of non-Muslim minorities. Thus, although Turkey is officially a secular state, the teaching of religious practices in public grade schools has been controversial. Turkey is a prime context within which to study the new role of religion in public life that marks our current era. [16], Another recent poll by OPTİMAR which interviewed 3,500 people in 26 cities, included a question about belief in God and found that 89.5% of the Turkish population believed in God, 4.5% believed in God but did not belong to an organized religion, 2.7% were agnostic, 1.7% were atheist, and 1.7% did not answer. Islam is the largest religion in Turkey according to the state, with 99.8% of the population being initially registered by the state as Muslim, for anyone whose parents are not of any other officially recognised religion and the remaining 0.2% are Christians or adherents of other officially recognised religions like Judaism. Turkey is, fundamentally, tolerant of all religions and just as tolerant of those who profess none. Turkish politicians have accused the country's EU opponents of favoring a "Christian club".[11]. The history of the major religions is inextricably mixed with the history of Anatolia. Critics argue that Turkish public institutions, once staunchly secular, are shifting in favour of Islamists. [25][26], The remainder of the population belongs to other faiths, particularly Christian denominations (Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Syriac Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant), and Judaism (mostly Sephardi Jews, and a smaller Ashkenazi community). Despite its large Muslim population and countless mosques, Turkey is actually secular. Therefore, there are many children of the irreligious and whose parents belong to religious minorities. There are also many historical churches which have been transformed into mosques or museums, such as the Hagia Sophia and Chora Church in Istanbul, the Church of St. Peter in Antakya, and the Church of St. Nicholas in Myra, among many others. Nevertheless, the Turkish state's interpretation of secularism has reportedly resulted in religious freedom violations for some of its non-Muslim citizens. But it may annoy some [people] in my country. The majority of the Turkish population is Muslim but in Turkey religion is strictly a private affair as with other European countries. Turkey's Constitutional Changes: Much Ado About Nothing? [14] 3% of Turks declare themselves with no religious beliefs. by forming a religious party) or establish faith-based schools. [41] The Wealth Tax on non-Muslims in 1942, the emigration of a portion of Turkish Jews to Israel after 1948, and the ongoing Cyprus dispute, which damaged relations between Turks and Greeks (culminating in the Istanbul pogrom of 6–7 September 1955), were other important events that contributed to the decline of Turkey's non-Muslim population. 75 patriarchs have ruled during the Ottoman period (1461–1908), 4 patriarchs in the Young Turks period (1908–1922) and 5 patriarchs in the current secular Republic of Turkey (1923–present). [31] Other Eastern Orthodox denomination is the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate with strong influences from Turkish nationalist ideology. For example, Alevi, Câferî (mostly Azeris), and Bektashi Muslims (mostly Turkmen) participate in the financing of the mosques and the salaries of Sunni imams by paying taxes to the state, while their places of worship, which are not officially recognized, do not receive any state funding. [49] Some religious and secular officials have also claimed that atheism and deism are growing among Turkish people. After the proclamation of the new Turkish Republic in 1923, all Sufi lodges and religious organizations were … Majority-Muslim Turkey Becomes Less Religious, Poll Says Despite a rise in religious doctrine from the government, a recent survey shows a dip in … Turkey straddles Europe and Asia and has a population of over 72 million, about three-quarters of them ethnic Turks. There have been 84 individual Patriarchs since establishment of the Patriarchate. The shift away from religion among Turkey’s younger generation follows a trend seen in many industralised countries. The modernizing reforms undertaken by President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the 1920s and 1930s further established secularism in Turkey. Notable mosques built in the Seljuk and Ottoman periods include the Sultan Ahmed Mosque and Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, the Yeşil Mosque in Bursa, the Alâeddin Mosque and Mevlana Mosque in Konya, and the Great Mosque in Divriği, among many others. [10] Any change in religion records additionally results in a new ID card being issued. Large mosques built in the Republic of Turkey period include the Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara and the Sabancı Mosque in Adana. The state has no official religion and the constitution recognizes freedom of religion for individuals. Turkish president approves amendment lifting headscarf ban, "Turkey passes law restricting alcohol sales", "Presidential Decree on the opening of Hagia Sophia to worship promulgated on the Official Gazette", "Erdogan Signs Decree Allowing Hagia Sophia to Be Used as a Mosque Again", "Turkey: Court strikes down Hagia Sophia museum decree", "Turkey's Erdogan says Hagia Sophia becomes mosque after court ruling", "Turning Hagia Sophia into museum violated will of its endower, Mehmed the Conquerer, Turkish court says", "Turkey's president formally makes Hagia Sophia a mosque", "UNESCO statement on Hagia Sophia, Istanbul", "Church body wants Hagia Sophia decision reversed", "Pope 'pained' by Hagia Sophia mosque decision", "World reacts to Turkey reconverting Hagia Sophia into a mosque", "Former Byzantine churches are being converted to mosques – this threatens Istanbul's cosmopolitan identity", "Turkey converts another former Istanbul church into a mosque", "Istanbul: Turkey is converting another former Byzantine church into a mosque", "Secularism in Turkey: Stronger than Ever? [23], Islam arrived in the region that comprises present-day Turkey, particularly the eastern provinces of the country, as early as the 7th century. Moreover, religious movements and lodges have been an active element of Turkish public sphere since 1950. [48], Irreligion in Turkey is uncommon among Turks as Islam is the predominant faith. Especially when the AKP Islamists are in power to enforce Islam upon society, this is making citizens turn their back on it. Turkish culture and traditions : All you need to know. Religion in Turkey: Turkey is approximately 99.8% Muslim. Sunni Islam is considered to be the religion of the majority in Turkey, which an estimated 65% of the population adhering. About 97.4% of the Turkish population is Muslim, a majority of whom belong to the Sunni branch of Islam. [8] Due to the nature of this method, the official number of Muslims include people with no religion; converted people and anyone who is of a different religion from their Muslim parents, but has not applied for a change of their individual records. The Islam religion can be divided into Sunni Islam, Alevi Shia Islam, Ja’fari Shia Islam and Alawi Shia Islam. The majority of the Turkish population is Muslim but in Turkey religion is strictly a private affair as with other European countries. 99% of Turkey’s people today are Muslim, and Turkey’s historyis principally that of an Islamic people, their empires,architecture, arts and literature. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who was opposed to Islamic tradition, secularized the state in 1928, gave woman the right to vote in 1935, … We are not associated with any religion or organization. There is a small ethnic Turkish Protestant Christian community include about 4,000–5,000[32] adherents, most of them came from Muslim Turkish background. Over 20% of the population belongs to the Alevi faith, thought by most of its adherents to be a form of Shia Islam; a minority consider it to have different origins (see Ishikism, Yazdanism). The legacy of this religious past is scattered throughout Anatolia, from the ruins of temples dedicated to Zeus and Athena to the Mevlana Tekkesi … "[91] The Greek Orthodox orphanage in Büyükada was closed by the government;[92] however, following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, the deed to the orphanage was returned to the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 29 November 2010. Turkey is a secular state with no official state religion and is in fact the only secular Islamic country in the world where religion has no place in the running of the state. [39] The drop was the result of events that had a significant impact on the country's demographic structure, such as the Armenian Genocide, the population exchange between Greece and Turkey[40] and the emigration of Christians that began in the late 19th century and gained pace in the first quarter of the 20th century. A petition reading "[O]f Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Alawite, Shafi’i, religious and nonreligious, atheist and agnostic backgrounds, all joined with a firm belief in secularism, [we] find your recent remarks about raising a religious and conservative youth most alarming and dangerous" was signed by over 2,000 people. The next largest ethnic group are the Kurds, with smaller numbers of ethnic Arabs, Circassians, Armenians, Laz, Georgians, Greeks, Jews and others. Compared to other countries around the world, the irreligious population in Turkey is relatively small. All maps, graphics, flags, photos and original descriptions © 2021 worldatlas.com, The 10 Least Populated Countries in Africa, 10 Countries Where Women Far Outnumber Men, The Most Famous Serial Killers In America And Their Twisted Crimes. Turkish Islam has always been strongly influenced by the mystical and poetic Sufi tradition, and Turkey remains a stronghold of Sufism. There are many churches and synagogues throughout the country, such as the Church of St. George, the St. Anthony of Padua Church, the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, the Neve Shalom Synagogue, the Italian Synagogue and the Ashkenazi Synagogue in Istanbul. CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (, Samim Akgönül – Religions de Turquie, religions des Turcs: nouveaux acteurs dans l'Europe élargie – L'Harmattan – 2005 – 196 pages, The World of the Alevis: Issues of Culture and Identity, Gloria L. 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Although some commentators claim the secularisation is merely a result of Western influence or even a "conspiracy", most commentators, even some pro-government ones, have come to conclude that "the real reason for the loss of faith in Islam is not the West but Turkey itself: It is a reaction to all the corruption, arrogance, narrow-mindedness, bigotry, cruelty and crudeness displayed in the name of Islam."
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