Religions in Turkey

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The Hagia Sophia , once the world's largest church, was in 1453 in a mosque in 1935 into a museum in 2020 and again converted into a mosque. It is a symbol of Istanbul

According to Article 2 of its constitution, the Republic of Turkey sees itself as a “democratic, secular and social constitutional state”; the population is predominantly committed to Sunni , Jaferite or Alevi Islam . Unlike French secularism , Turkish laicism does not contain an absolute separation of religion and state , but state control of religion . Independent political interference by religious communities is undesirable. Therefore, all religions as well as the main one, Sunni Islam, are under state supervision.

Along with Albania , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Kosovo and the Muslim successor states of the Soviet Union, Turkey is one of the few predominantly Muslim states in which Islamic law - Sharia - does not apply. From a political and sociological perspective, Sunni Islam appears in three variants: as state Islam, as popular Islam and, more recently, as political Islam ( Islamism ).

The majority of Muslims are Sunnis, followed by Alevis, who, however, are not specifically counted in official statistics, but are nominally listed as Muslims and their proportion is estimated differently (see below). Mention should also be made of the Alawites (Nusairians) and a Shiite minority , mainly in eastern Turkey . The religious minorities also include Christians of various denominations , Jews , Baha'i , Yazidis , Karaites and others. a. The minority policy of Turkey is - especially in the context of the Accession of Turkey to the European Union politically controversial -.

The Kartal-Cemevi in Istanbul

history

The region of today's Turkey looks back on approx. 7000 years of cultural and religious history. As a strategically and economically important area, it was often the scene of migrations, conquests, political, economic and religious disputes, but also a center of philosophy, theology, art and cultural development.

Historically, it plays a central role in Christianity

Historically, it plays a central role in Islam

It played an important role historically for Judaism

Early civilizations

In the immediate vicinity of Mesopotamia , but delimited by the barrier of the Antitaurus Mountains and its foothills, developed in Asia Minor from about 30,000 BC. Various independent Stone Age and Early Bronze Age cultures, "which were later changed from around 2000 BC. Hittites who immigrated to Central Anatolia have been consolidated into a unit. ”The pronounced cult of the Hittites, which is reflected in the numerous temple districts of their excavated capital Hattuša , takes up local cults of the 3rd millennium, including the Hattier , in its iconography , back on. Gods were worshiped in shrines, represented by symbols or steles.

The two most important myths of Hatt origin are the cultic legends of the fertility god Telipinu , who in anger withdraws to the underworld and thus allows the land to wither until the goddess Kamrušepa appeases him and brings him back; as well as the fight of the weather god with the dragon Illuyanka, in which he is defeated and has to be saved by other gods. There is evidence that these gods myths were portrayed in ritual rites, with people taking on the role of helping deities.

The original religion of the Turkic peoples was Tengrism .

Early Christianity

According to the Acts of the Apostles (Acts), a book of the New Testament , the first Christian churches in what is now Turkey were founded by believers who fled Judea from the persecution of Saul ( Paul ). The city of Antioch on the Orontes (today Antakya ) is specifically mentioned. Paul was called there after he had stayed for a while in his native city of Tarsus , which is also in what is now Turkey , after his conversion .

Mission of the Apostle Paul

We are informed about the apostle Paul and his work as an itinerant preacher and missionary exclusively through the New Testament (NT), on the one hand through the Acts of the Apostles (Acts), the second half of which deals almost exclusively with Paul, and on the other hand through the letters of Paul contained in the NT.

In the so-called “first missionary journey” Paul first visited Cyprus, the home of his companion, Apostle Barnabas .

After the conversion of the governor of the island, L. Sergius Paul (l) us, who can be historically proven by one or even several inscriptions, Paul traveled to his then Phrygian hometown, Antioch . His local sermon led - as so often in the book of Acts - the polarization and the persecution of Christians, so Paul and Barnabas to Iconium (now Konya ), Lystra and finally Derbe fled, and there are also communities founded before they Antioch in Pisidia to Antioch on Orontes returned.

In the further course of the Acts of the Apostles, the work of Paul in the interior of Asia Minor is only described in summary form. It is controversial how the term "Galatia" is to be understood: While most theologians in German-speaking countries relate this to the Galatia landscape , Breytenbach draws attention to the fact that most researchers in the Anglo-Saxon region assume that this means that the " first missionary trip “meant the areas visited in the province of Galatia. One argument for the “provincial hypothesis” is that according to it it follows that Paul in Acts 16: 6-11 is led by God on the shortest route from the Phrygian part of Galatia (i.e. Antioch near Pisidia) to Macedonia ( Philippi ), while himself according to the "landscape hypothesis" results in a strange zigzag course. - In any case, Paul also comes to Troas (Troy), where a Christian community is mentioned later.

According to the Acts of the Apostles, Paul worked primarily in Ephesus - as far as the area of ​​today's Turkey is concerned - for a total of "three years" (which corresponds to 1 to 3 years according to the counting method of that time). After the (inevitable) conflict with the Jews, he preached in a rented hall and was so successful that he also provoked reactions from the heathen: The silversmiths, who mainly sold silver images of the Temple of Artemis, organized a "demonstration" which ended in tumultuous riots and a chaotic “people's assembly”.

Paul's work in Ephesus (ie in the province of "Asia", whose capital was Ephesus) is also attested in his letters: it is mentioned several times, there is also a letter to the Ephesians and a letter to Colossae , which is addressed to a community which was probably founded from Ephesus.

Byzantine Empire

In the Byzantine Empire (also Eastern Roman Empire), Christianity of the Byzantine Rite reached its climax on today's Turkish territory. The region of today's Turkey was the center of the Orthodox Church in the Eastern Roman Empire. After the increasing occupation of the country by the Muslim Seljuks , however, Christianity was strongly pushed back in the region.

Ottoman Empire

Trade flag used by Muslim traders in the Ottoman Empire

The state religion in the Ottoman Empire was Islam . There were occasional tensions in the relationship between official Islam and the popular Sufism beliefs . Sufism in Turkey spread from around the 10th century, until the 15th century, mystical practices of Sufi orders were widespread throughout the empire. The Mevlevi Order of Konya became best known .

In the Ottoman Empire, religious freedom for Christians and Jews was initially guaranteed, especially in the first half of the 19th century. According to the Millet system , they were allowed to regulate their own affairs. In the middle of the 19th century, in the course of the Tanzimat reforms, the Millet system was gradually dissolved and the equality of religions enforced, albeit against the resistance of the Muslim clergy, who feared for their power. With the assumption of office of Abdülhamid II , the so-called Red Sultan , and the reversal of the democratization process - the Ottoman constitution of 1876 was de facto suspended in 1878 - a steadily growing nationalism began to be reflected in hatred and violence against the minorities. One reason for this is seen in the geopolitical influence of various European powers on the non-Muslim minorities in the Ottoman Empire. The first major massacres against the Armenian Apostolic Christians were carried out between 1894 and 1897/98 . At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century there was finally the genocide of the Armenians and the Syrian Christians (Assyrians) , who were also baptized as Christian.

The Republic

The relationship of the state to the Islamic religion has fundamentally changed under the first Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk . It was the secularism ( Turkish laiklik ) introduced strict separation of religion and state , which meant that the Kemalists under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk completely controlled religious practice. Ataturk's reforms guaranteed freedom of religion to Alevis , but the Sufi orders were banned. The same thing happened to the Bektashi , whose current center is now in Albania. For the first time, however, every citizen was explicitly considered an equal citizen regardless of religion.

The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne also gave Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Christians and Jews in the Turkish Republic certain collective rights. In 1928 Ataturk had the status of Islam as the state religion deleted from the constitution and laicism introduced as a political principle of the Turkish state. In the course of the modernization process, religious clothing ( headscarf , turban , fez and veil ) was gradually banned from everyday life and European clothing was propagated (see also hat reform ). Men and women were also legally equated, which was aimed at suppressing the strong religious influence on the state and society. Sharia , Islamic law, was completely abolished in Turkey as early as 1925 .

After Ataturk's death, some socio-political reforms were reversed. Since the 1970s, a conservative and puritanic Islam has spread in Turkey, and Islamists have gained ever greater influence. After several acts of violence against Christians in Turkey (see persecution of Christians ), such as the pogrom in Istanbul , as well as the emigration of Jews to Israel , however, the culturally rich Christian and Jewish life in Turkey practically came to a standstill to this day. Furthermore, Alevis were and are often targets of attack for conservative Muslims and victims of discrimination by the Turkish state. Pogroms ( pogrom of Maraş , pogrom of Çorum ) and attacks ( arson attack by Sivas ) should also be mentioned here.

Religions in Turkey

Religious composition

Around 98 percent of the Turkish population are - at least nominally - Muslims , including a proportion of Alevis , whose proportion of the population is estimated differently. These estimates range from 15% to a third of Turkish Muslims, mostly between 15 and 25%. The proportion of Turkish Alawites and Shiites in the population is also unknown. In addition, around 0.2% Christians (100,000) and around 0.04% Jews ( Sephardi , Ashkenazim , Karaites and Dönme ) (25,000) live in Turkey . The largest group among Christians are the approximately 65,000 members of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church . In addition, there are around 2000 Greek Orthodox Christians (who live mainly in Istanbul) and an estimated 2000 Syrian Orthodox , Syrian Catholic and Chaldean Catholic Christians ( see also : Arameans in Turkey ) as well as Greek Catholic , Armenian Catholic and Roman Catholic Catholic ( Apostolic Vicariate Istanbul , Apostolic Vicariate Anatolia ) Christians. Protestant and Anglican congregations have been around for a relatively short time. At the beginning of the 20th century, around 20% Christians still lived in what is now Turkey. The number of Baha'i living in Turkey is unknown because only a few of them have organized themselves into communities. There are also members of smaller religious communities and sects of all kinds.

Istanbul is the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , which has the first honorary rank within the Orthodox Church , but is not recognized in this position by the Turkish government. The Patriarch of Constantinople of the Armenian Apostolic Church also resides in Istanbul .

Religions not recognized

Alevis

The Alevis are a religious community in Anatolia and the major Turkish cities and form the second largest religious community in the country. In which form one can classify Alevism in Islam is a matter of dispute - also among the Alevis themselves. They reject Islamic law , do not regard pilgrimage , alms tax , fasting and ritual prayer as part of their religion and add a phrase related to Ali to the creed . Some of the Alevis were persecuted in the Ottoman Empire because they were encouraged by the Shiites from neighboring Iran to revolt against the Ottoman state. The Alevis were victims of Islamic fundamentalists and Turkish nationalists on several occasions, such as the fire in the Madimak hotel or the pogroms in Çorum and Maraş . The legal situation of the Alevis in Turkey is still poor. They are still not a recognized religious minority, their houses of prayer are not respected as such and they do not receive any state support, as the European Court of Human Rights confirmed. Another problem is that Alevi children have to take part in Sunni-influenced religious instruction.

Yazidis

The Yazidis (Kurdish: Ezidi ) are members of a syncretistic religious community with elements from all oriental religions such as Zoroastrianism , Mithraism , Manichaeism , Judaism and Islam . Ethnically, the Yazidis can be assigned to the Kurds. They speak Kurmanji and still live in a few dozen villages in Southeast Anatolia. Their main settlement areas are today in northern Iraq ( southern Kurdistan ) with its religious center Lalisch . There are also smaller Yazidi communities in Armenia, Georgia and Russia. Due to their religious affiliation, the Yazidis have been subjected to persecution by their Muslim neighbors in many cases. In today's Turkey, because of their ethnic and religious affiliation, they occupy a double position of outsider and have had to fight against discrimination. Often the Yazidis are erroneously (or as non-Muslims) also referred to as devil worshipers ( Şeytana tapan ). State-directed persecution no longer exists today, as they no longer play a numerical role in their countries of origin. Most of the Yazidis from Turkey have emigrated to Europe, especially to Germany, in the last few decades.

Atheism and deism

Every resident of Turkey is automatically considered a Muslim, unless he is explicitly assigned to another religion. There is no formal exit from the Muslim community, so that even those without a denomination are officially listed as Muslims. There are, however, various studies according to which the proportion of atheists and agnostics can be estimated.

According to a survey by the American Pew Research Institute (2015), 3% of Turks say that religion is "completely unimportant" to them. In a Gallup poll (2012), 2% of Turks described themselves as "staunch atheists". Finally, a Eurobarometer study found that 1% of Turks do not believe in a "Spirit, God, or life force". So one can assume that 1-3% of Turks are atheists. If you include agnostics or simply non-religious people, the proportion of non-believers in Turkey should be well over 3%. According to a survey published in 2019, 3% profess atheism

The association Ateizm Derneği with an office in Istanbul-Kadıköy has existed as an atheist organization since April 2014 . There is also the Association of Deists .

Islam and Society

In Turkey itself, the influence of conservative Muslims has increased since the 1970s and 1980s. An increasing part of the population is professing their Islamic identity. The proportion of women wearing the Islamic headscarf has increased; B. from 2003 to 2007 from 64.2 to 69.4%.

The election successes of the Islamic-conservative AKP can be interpreted as a sign of social change (see parliamentary elections in Turkey in 2002 , 2007 , 2011 , June 2015 and November 2015 ).

The government supports and privileges a Sunni Islam; heterodox cultural practices such as Alevism or Bektashi are excluded. The conservatism may now considered mainstream apply in Turkish society.

Relationship between state and religion

Secularism

State founder Ataturk made secularism one of the six pillars of modern Turkey. This principle prescribes a strict separation of religion and state . Article 24 of the 1982 Constitution limits freedom of belief to the individual. Religious communities cannot assert any rights under this section of the constitution.

Traditionally, secularism had strong support from the Turkish military.

Since the 1980s, the secular forces have lost power in the political structure of Turkey in favor of Islamist and nationalist parties. When the military was pushed back, there was a revival of the religious in the public and a re-Islamization. Consistent representatives of secularism accuse their opponents of İrtica in this regard . In particular, the movement around Fethullah Gülen is accused of undermining secularism.

The lifting of the headscarf ban at Turkish universities, which was decided under Erdogan, was overturned by the constitutional court with reference to secularism.

Bureau for Religious Affairs

The privileged religion of Turkey is Sunni state Islam. The Sunni institutions are administered by the state Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı , the Bureau for Religious Affairs . It employs around 88,000 people - prayer leaders , preachers, callers to prayer and Islamic legal scholars and regulates their training, pays and maintains over 70,000 mosques , monitors religious literature and specifies the content of the sermons to be delivered nationwide . It is also responsible for the almost 900 so-called religious representatives (imams) at the DITIB mosques in Germany. However, the “Diyanet” only takes care of sending prayer leaders and religious representatives to the mosques. It does not build mosques, and neither does Alevi Cem houses of prayer . The latter are not on an equal footing with conventional mosques, but correspond to the Christian religious houses, which organize their governance structures themselves.

Political Islam and Islamism

Political Islam in Turkey forms a countermovement to Kemalist state Islam and is historically associated with the names Mehmed Zahid Kotku and Necmettin Erbakan . He has spawned various political parties that questioned secularism. T. were banned. At first it was more of a religious-traditionalist movement that demanded a stronger influence of Islam on politics and society. More recently, a reform wing has increasingly occupied social and economic issues and has thus been able to win over large sections of the population. Political Islam is represented by the currently ruling President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his AKP .

However, there is still a social power struggle between Kemalism and political Islam. He expresses himself u. a. In symbolic discussions: "The debate about the role of Islam in Turkish society finds its visible expression today in the discussion about wearing the headscarf." Further lines of conflict in matters of secularism can be seen between the army leadership and the government under Prime Minister Erdoğan.

Rights of religious minorities

The conflict between state Islam and political Islam also influences the situation of religious minorities in Turkey. For fear of an increase in Islamist power, the state is reluctant to grant non-Muslim religious communities institutional rights.

The Jews as well as the Orthodox and Armenian Christians are granted minority protection under the Treaty of Lausanne . Christian communities are allowed to run their own schools. However, they are not allowed to train young priests to look after and care for Christian Turks. In addition, the Christian seminars that the Turkish state closed over 35 years ago remain closed.

However, the Syrian Orthodox Christians of Southeast Anatolia ( Tur Abdin ) do not fall under the provisions of the Lausanne Treaty . The Protestant and Catholic communities, consisting almost exclusively of foreigners, are not allowed to acquire property, have increasingly been expropriated in recent years and, like sects and various Islamic groups, are not allowed to form official communities.

In Turkey, at least the free choice of religion is allowed. However, Christians are still discriminated against. In the EU accession talks, this problem was repeatedly raised with Ankara. But there is no solution in sight. Churches in Turkey have no legal status, so they cannot conduct any legal transactions. Churches are not allowed to train their staff themselves, and property is repeatedly expropriated without compensation.

The desolate situation of Christians and Jews is confirmed by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the Society for Threatened Peoples . The EU urges Turkey to make rapid improvements.

In Alanya , however, the establishment of official Catholic and Protestant pastoral care has recently been permitted to meet the needs of holidaymakers. Especially since European pensioners have settled there permanently or at least for several months a year, a need arose here that could no longer be met with the previously common legal constructs (pastors are officially embassy employees, company owners, etc.).

In the identity card there is a rubric for religious affiliation, but the entry in it is voluntary, freely selectable and can be changed at the owner's request at any time.

Difficulties faced by religious minorities

Historical crimes

Genocides against Christian minorities

During the process of disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in World War I , nationalist disputes led to the genocide of the (Christian) Armenians , the genocide of the Syrian Christians and massacres of the Pontic Greeks . This stressful past has not yet been dealt with in the public perception and makes it difficult for ethnic and religious groups to live together in Turkey (see the murder of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January 2007).

Thrace pogrom of 1934

In 1934 there was a pogrom against the Jewish minority in Thrace.

The Istanbul pogrom

A well-known example of pogroms against non-Muslim minorities in Turkey occurred in 1955. On the night of September 6th, 1955, the Istanbul pogrom was sparked, as a result of which almost 100,000 Christians left the country and, as in the past, Jews , Armenians and Assyrians also fell victim. A fanatical mob set fire to 72 Orthodox churches and more than 30 Christian schools in Istanbul alone. He then desecrated Christian cemeteries and devastated around 3,500 homes and more than 4,000 shops. Murder, rape and the most serious human rights violations occurred. The Turkish police looked on inactive.

Deficits in granting freedom of religion

In October 1997, the governor of the province of Mardin issued a ban on the Christian monasteries of Zafaran and Mor Gabriel , to accommodate foreign guests and to give religious and native language lessons. International protests meant that at least the ban on accommodation was lifted. Language lessons in Aramaic are still prohibited. Already in 1979 the boarding school of the monastery near Mardin was closed due to a state decree.

For the EU commissions and European governments, the alarming situation of the Christian minorities is a priority, as the "Young Turks" (1914/15) and during the Cyprus crisis ( 1955 ) made them fall from 25% to between 0.1 and 0.15%. of the Turkish population had been reduced. The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) assumes "around 150,000 Christians of Armenian, Syrian-Orthodox and Greek-Orthodox origin", while Missio , the Catholic Missionswerk, gives the number of Christians at around 100,000. The Society for Threatened Peoples estimates the number is somewhere between the two.

EU observers and human rights organizations reported in 1997 that there were many reliefs for Assyrian Christians, especially in Tur Abdin . Refugees and displaced persons were able to return to some villages and hold classes in Aramaic, which was hindered before that. However, this teaching is not officially recognized, which also applies to this ethnic group as a whole.

In 2007 Archbishop Samuel Aktaş of the Mor Gabriel Monastery blessed the already inhabited new houses in the village of Kafro in Tur Abdin after a service in the still destroyed St. Mary's Church. The 11th returnees were expected in the place that had been vacant since the mid-1990s until the end of September. For security reasons, there was only one internal opening ceremony. The European Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg) has strengthened the property rights of non-Muslim minorities in Turkey with a ruling: Turkey was sentenced to return two properties under threat of compensation that the Istanbul Foundation of a Greek Orthodox School of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in donated in the 1950s and confiscated by the state in 1996.

In 2010, Federal President Christian Wulff made a state visit to Turkey (details here ). He advocated religious freedom and attended a church service. In August 2011 - before the planned return visit by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan - the state of Turkey announced that it would return hundreds of expropriated properties or compensate them to non-Muslim foundations.

In 2016, the European Court of Human Rights came to the conclusion that the Turkish state discriminated against Alevis and instead systematically favored Sunnis. This concerns, among other things, the legal protection of their faith or state support for buildings.

Islamist and nationalist violence

Islamist and nationalist extremism repeatedly lead to violence against Christians and other minorities. As Amnesty International emphasized, at the end of 2001 there was no evidence that the state was persecuting Christians. But one knows about the hindrance to the free practice of religion in Turkey. In the past few years, the Turkish government in Ankara has repeatedly criticized the activities of Christian mission organizations.

Assassinations against Christians

On March 11, 2006, the Capuchin Hanri Leylek was attacked by a young man with a knife in Mersin , who was shortly afterwards taken into custody by the police. This was the second attack on a clergyman in four months in Mersin. According to various press reports, around 700 Christians live in Mersin, which was the Catholic bishopric from 1993 to 1999, including around 360 believers from various Catholic rites: Latins, Maronites, Greek Catholics, Armenian Catholics, Syrian Catholics and Chaldeans.

In 2006 the Italian priest Andrea Santoro was shot from behind by a Turkish youth while praying in the Trabzon Church . On January 19, 2007, the same fate met the journalist Hrant Dink, who is known as the most prominent mouthpiece of the Armenians in Istanbul . Police officers had themselves photographed and filmed with the journalist's murderer and a Turkish flag. The officers were suspended and prosecuted. These images sparked protests in Turkey and around the world. The perpetrator, Ogün Samast , boasted of killing an infidel who had offended Turkey. Since he came from the same city in which Don Santoro was murdered, the Turkish police are looking there for possible connections.

In 2006 the International Society for Human Rights launched an international appeal under the motto “Turkey: First drive out the Christians, then to the EU?” In it, the ISHR once again called on the EU Council of Ministers to “consider the negative development in Turkey a clear one To demand clarification of the events in Turkey and to insist consistently on the fulfillment of the Copenhagen criteria ”. Patriarch Bartholomäus I , the honorary head of the approximately 250 million Orthodox Christians, confirms that the situation of Christians in Turkey is turning "from bad to worse".

On April 18, 2007, the cruelest Christian murders occurred in Malatya in recent years. Three employees of the small Christian Zirve publishing house, including a German, had their throats cut. Another was seriously injured while trying to escape. The publisher had already been threatened in the past.

Assassinations on Alevis

From December 19 to 26, 1978, the Kahramanmaraş massacre occurred , in which more than 100 people died. Before the “climax” of the pogrom, Alevis were killed by bomb attacks and shots by extremist Sunnis and supporters of the MHP . The incitement of imams in mosques as well as the mayor's refusal to provide necessary security forces also added to this situation . The pogrom took place on December 23 and left 111 dead, as well as numerous raped women and tortured Alevis.

On July 4, 1980, with the pogrom of Çorum , another massacre by the “ gray wolves ” against Alevis took place. By the morning of July 5, attacks by MHP supporters resulted in numerous seriously injured people and 18 dead (including women and young people).

At an Alevi cultural festival in honor of the poet Pir Sultan Abdal in Sivas in the summer of 1993 , the Turkish writer Aziz Nesin publicly declared that he considered a large part of the Turkish population to be “cowardly and stupid” because they did not have the courage to stand up for democracy. This and the translation and partial publication of the novel The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie led to the fact that especially conservative Sunni circles felt provoked. On July 2nd, after Friday prayers, an angry crowd gathered in front of the Madımak Hotel, where Aziz Nesin, but also Alevi musicians, writers, poets and publishers stayed. In the midst of the angry protesting crowd, incendiary devices were finally thrown at the hotel. Since the hotel was made of wood, the fire spread quickly. 35 people burned to death; however, the author Aziz Nesin, who, according to some sources, had primarily targeted the attack, survived with minor injuries. Because of the angry crowd outside the hotel, the residents of the hotel could not go outside until they were finally trapped in the fire. Although the police and fire brigade were alerted early on, they did not intervene for eight hours. The State Security Court in Ankara came to the conclusion that the crowd was obstructing the rescue work by the fire brigade. On the other hand, testimonies and video recordings show how isolated police officers helped the crowd and how an advancing military unit withdrew.

In this arson attack many famous Alevis were killed as nesimi çimen , Edibe Sulari , Hasret Gültekin and Muhlis Akarsu .

See also

literature

  • Cemal Karakaş: Turkey. Islam and secularism between heads of state, political and social interests , HSFK -Report No 1/2007. PDF .
  • Hüseyin Özcan; Cüneyd Dinc: The Kemalism as a concept of the secular state , in: Ataturk Üniversitesi Erzincan Hukuk Fakanschesi Dergisi, Vol. IX, No. 3-4, Apr. 2005, pp. 201-233.
  • Bassam Tibi: Departure on the Bosporus. Turkey between Europe and Islamism , Munich / Zurich 1998.
  • Heidi Wedel: The Turkish way between secularism and Islam. On the development of the understanding of secularism in the Turkish Republic (studies and work of the Center for Turkish Studies 6), Opladen 1991.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ayse Nuhoğlu: Religious Freedom in Turkey and Criminal Law ( Memento from November 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 230 kB)
  2. ↑ a b c d Cf. Udo Steinbach: Islam in Turkey . In: Information on political education, issue 277 (4/2002), Verlag Franzis, 2002
  3. ↑ Acts 19  EU
  4. ↑ Barthel Hrouda: Handbook of Archeology. Middle East I: Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Iran and Anatolia, Munich 1971, 9f.
  5. ↑ a b See Jak Yakar: The later Prehistory of Anatolia. The Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, Oxford 1985, 417-429.
  6. ↑ A Hittite text describes the embellishment of a sanctuary called Marash, in which four deities were depicted: a weather god as a bull, a mountain god as a club, a third with five copper daggers, a fourth in the form of a stele with the image of a nursing mother. The Hittite great king replaced the depictions with a silver bull, a club, adorned with depictions of the sun disk and crescent moon and surmounted by an iron male figure, a silver male statuette with gold eyes and a copper dagger, and a nursing woman.
  7. ↑ Acts 11: 19-26.
  8. ↑ Acts 11: 25-26.
  9. ↑ Acts 13: 4-12.
  10. ↑ CIL 06, 01803
  11. ↑ CIL 06, 31545
  12. ↑ CIL 06, 00253
  13. ^ Cilliers Breytenbach: Paulus and Barnabas in the province of Galatia. EJ Brill. Leiden, New York, Cologne 1996. ISBN 90-04-10693-6 . P. 45.
  14. ↑ Ramsay is said to have pointed out this connection first (?) .
  15. ↑ The term "Antioch in Pisidia" used in later manuscripts of the Acts of the Apostles does not apply to the time of Paul.
  16. ↑ Acts 16: 6-8; 19.23.
  17. ^ Cilliers Breytenbach: Paulus and Barnabas in the province of Galatia. Studies on Acts 13f .; 16.6; 18.23 and the addressees of Galatians, AGJU 38, Leiden / New York / Cologne 1996.
  18. ↑ Acts 16.8-9.
  19. ↑ Acts 20: 6-12.
  20. ↑ Acts 18: 19-21; 19.1-40.
  21. ↑ APG 19, 23-40; Paul himself wrote 2 Cor 1: 8-10 less dramatically.
  22. ↑ z. B. 1. Cor. 15,32; 2 Corinthians 1,8.
  23. ↑ Elcin Kürsat: The Westernization Process of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and 19th Centuries , p. 161.
  24. ↑ Reinhard Siemes: Myth Ataturk in Turkey: Kemal Süperstar. In: taz.de . November 17, 2008, accessed January 14, 2015 .
  25. ↑ tagesschau.de: Human Rights Court: Alevis in Turkey discriminated. Retrieved April 12, 2017 .
  26. ↑ Ende, Werner, Udo Steinbach and Renate Laut 2005 Islam in the Present. CH Beck. P. 143
  27. ↑ Estimates on Alevis:
  28. ↑ Oehring: Expert opinion ( Memento from January 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), page 66, accessed on July 16, 2009. (PDF .; 1.2 MB)
  29. ↑ Thomas Holl: Serious allegations against Turkey. In: FAZ.net . February 7, 2008, accessed January 14, 2015 .
  30. ↑ Ferda Ataman : 15 Years of the Sivas Massacre: The Resurrection of the Alevis. In: Spiegel Online . July 6, 2008, accessed January 14, 2015 .
  31. ↑ tagesschau.de: Human Rights Court: Alevis in Turkey discriminated. Retrieved April 12, 2017 .
  32. ↑ Religion is very important (PDF) In: Global Attitudes Project . Pew Research Center . Spring 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  33. ↑ - ( Memento from October 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  34. ↑ Special Eurobarometer, biotechnology (PDF) European Commission, Directorate-General for Communication. October 2010. Archived from the original on December 15, 2010.
  35. ↑ https://www.dw.com/de/zahl-der-atheisten-in-erdogans-t%C3%BCrkei-haben/a-46992921 ; In Die Zeit , Can Dündar reminds that "it is not easy to answer the question" Are you pious? "In the negative. That would make you suspicious in the eyes of the government and pose a real risk."
  36. ↑ Zeliah Dikman: "Atheism club" Turkey founded. In: Humanistic press service . April 23, 2014. Retrieved July 20, 2017 .
  37. ↑ https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/plus187393160/Tuerkei-Gottesfurcht-sinkt-trotz-Erdogans-Islamisierungsversuchen.html
  38. ↑ Ali Çarkoglu and Barry Rubin: religion and politics in Turkey . Routledge (UK), 2004, ISBN 0-415-34831-5 ( online in the Google book search).
  39. ↑ NZweek (New Zealand News): Conservatism becomes mainstream in Turkish society: survey ( Memento of February 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , October 5, 2012, accessed on June 19, 2016.
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