"Islam and Kemalism in Turkey (1)
Bekim Agai
Tuesday 6 February 2007 - 06/02/2007
How do Islamists and Kemalists in Turkey today deal with the laicistic inheritance of the state’s founder Kemal Ataturk? And what are the ideal forms of state and society which lie behind their positions? An analysis by Bekim Agai.
On 29th October, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed in Ankara. Its first president was Mustafa Kemal, later named Atatürk. The old caliphate gave way to a laicistic nation state, with new state structures and a new legal system. For the revolutionary modernisers Islam was a barrier on the way to a republic."
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