Freedom of Religion in Turkey

Is Freedom of Religion Applied in Turkey?

Fevzi Kalem

Boğaziçi University

ABSTRACT

Since the beginning of the human history, we see that there have always been gods, no matter where you go. Firstly, there were lots of gods. After years passed, religions with only one god replaced the beliefs which have plenty of gods. Some remained as mythology, some became lost. With the developments in technology, knowledge increased. People started to question their rights and this ended up French Revolution. Freedom of belief was one of the first things that came people’s mind and they defined it. Ever since the revolution, the definition stayed almost same. Freedom of religion defines the right that includes person’s choice of believing in a religion or not, performing the religious services and rituals which are required by the situation of believing or not, changing his belief, being capable of making propagandizing of his belief. In Turkey, there have always been problems to apply the freedom of religion. Since the day when secularism was written into constitution law, almost all governments have always tried to realize the secularism dream which was given forth by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

The origin of the legal guarantees of freedom of conscience and religion in western-Europe are found in the civil wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. Western Europe was torn apart by religious strife caused by the Reformation, which disrupted the medieval religious unity of Catholicism. It should be stressed that the impact of these civil wars, raging in particular in France, England, the Netherlands, and Germany, was enormous. For instance, the Thirty Years War in Germany (1618-1648), fought between Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist princes, took the lives of millions. The German empire had 10 million inhabitants in 1618; in 1648 it had only 6 million left.

At least a partial solution to help end these horrible civil wars was...