Volkan Bozkır, a diplomat-turned-ruling party deputy, told Habertürk TV last week that it was the first time in the history of the Turkish Republic that a Turkish prime minister had opened up his arms to the eastern Muslim neighbors. He was referring to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's recent Arab Spring tour that covered Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.
NATO's only Muslim member Turkey, secular according to the Constitution, turned its back on fellow Muslim countries in the Middle East out of fear that strong bonds with the countries, some of which were ruled by Muslim religious laws, would infect Turkey's strictly secular tradition. In addition, having been ruled by the Ottomans for more than 400 years, Arabs held a strong bias against Turkey, ancestors of the Ottoman Empire. In fact, the feeling was mutual as the Turkish perception of Arabs was negative, too.
Turkish secularism under the so-called guardianship of the politically meddlesome military was problematic too as it was used and is still being used as a tool to prevent citizens from exercising their freedoms, including their right to practice their religion freely. This kind of strictly defined secularist concept also prevented small minority populations in Turkey, i.e., the Greeks and the Armenians, to run, for example, their religious schools such as the Halki seminary on Heybeliada Island near İstanbul.
However, the continuing decline of the Turkish military's political power, which used to have control over the implementation of secularism, has paved the way, among other things, for a debate in Turkey regarding the redefining of secularism.
The secularism debate has also brought to light the deep divide between the AK Party's definition of this concept and that of the fierce military secularists.
With this in mind, Erdoğan's message about secularism during his Arab Spring tour was meaningful. During a televised interview, Erdoğan urged Egyptians that they should not be afraid of secularism and that they should embrace it. This has been viewed among staunchly secularist Turks as a positive message home from Cairo. Erdoğan, however, later clarified that his party's definition of secularism is not new, which is that the state can be secular but not the people. This definition has run contrary with that of Turkey's secularists, who are of the opinion that the people should also be secular.
Still, Erdoğan's remarks on secularism will help initiate a debate in the Middle East as the masses of the region are seeking a change for better and perhaps democratic governance. This change will inevitably lead to a more democratic region for Turkey. In addition, if this region internalizes the virtues of secularism by making a clear cut separation of state affairs and the mosque, this will be a major achievement for the region. Repressive regimes of the Middle East have always used the Islamic religion as a means to suppress their people who, therefore, have perceived secularism as something equal to atheism.
Arab Muslims have, therefore, perceived Turks as infidels due to their secular system.
But now, as taboos in the Arab world have begun to be broken, with the people challenging their repressive regimes and forcing them to leave office, Turkey has the potential to stand as a good model in which a predominantly Muslim country can be democratic and at the same time respect the religious beliefs of its citizens.
Perhaps Turkey, with its ruling party's redefinition of secularism in a Muslim society, might have been a factor in the support Erdoğan received during his Arab Spring by the millions of supporters of the Arab Spring in the Middle East. If not soon, in the long run, it is highly important that Muslims of the Middle East realize the benefits of having secular states that adopt civil laws other than religious ones.
