Modern Diplomacy
Published 2 months ago
The state-religion relationship and secularism policies in Turkey have been of a scholarly endeavor for both local and international researchers. While analyzing democracy journey and modernization history of Turkey, secularism has been one of the top-analyzed issues.
The first attempts of secularism were witnessed in the late Ottoman times. While the order based on the Millet system continued until the end of 1800s, it was subjected to change during Tanzimat era, it was replaced by a secular ideology known as Ottomanism. During the modernization period, the intellectuals who got training in Europe were influential. For instance, Abdullah Cevdet believed that there had been no civilization in the world except for Europe. Cevdet wanted to make society get a form based on a strict idea of positivism. It is known that, Cevdet had been an ideologist of the Young Turks until 1908.