Abstract:

Tanzimat which officially begun with the Tanzimat Edict (Tanzimat Fermani) announced on 3 November 1839 is a key period to understand and analyze today of Turkey in the social, political, cultural, and economic fields. The Tanzimat Period of the Ottoman State is counted the foundation of modernization and laicization in Turkey, What makes Tanzimat Tanzimat is that it is a bridge between the Otoman State and the modern Turkish Republic. The most important foot, more truly speaking, the cement of this bridge is laicity seeds sowed by Tanzimat. The phenomenon of quasi-laicity which appeared as a new situation in the Tanzimat Period, the basis factor in the history of Turkey, laid the groundwork for the State of Turkish Republic and the laic political identity. Shortly, this article aims to consider how Tanzimat, which can be characterized as a turning point and an innovation in almost every area of our cultural history, and a socio-cultural change period in wide meaning, has a place in the dissolution and erosion of the traditional Ottoman political identity, and in the formation of laic political identity in Turkey with the understanding approach.

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