Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to put forward how political parties in Turkey follow regarding the religious field, and how they are affected by Kemalist ideology while doing their politics in this field.  In this context, first of all, the approach of Kemalist ideology towards religion and the understanding of secularism were discussed. Then, the religious policies of the Republican People's Party, important center-right parties and national vision parties, which were influential in the Republican period, were discussed. Within the scope of the study, the programs of these parties, their discourses on religion and their actions in this field were examined. In addition to these, other sources related to the subject were also used and the results were tried to be reached by interpreting the obtained data. As a result of the study, it was determined that in Turkey there are three perspectives on the relation between religion and politics, and political parties’ religious politics are shaped according to these viewpoints.  However, it was concluded that the Kemalist ideology and the understanding of secularism formed in line with this ideology were the dominant understanding, that institutions with this ideology and secularism were interfering with other parties in various ways, and therefore, other parties, except the Republican People's Party, could not determine their religious policies in the way they wanted.

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