Hicab, türban, and democracy: religious freedom versus political protest

The attire of women, in particular the style of donning of the headscarf to cover the head, neck and the shoulders of women (türban) by pious Sunni women has once again become the center of controversy in Turkish higher education and politics. The amended versions of articles 10 and 42 of the 1982 Constitution of Turkey, which enhance equality before the law of the Turkish citizens, were referred to the oversight of the Constitutional Court as a potential breach of the secularist principles of the Republic. Almost simultaneously, the AKP, which won the most votes and seats in the National Assembly after the July 22, 2007 elections and formed the government alone, has also been indicted on the grounds of becoming the focal point of activities against secularism, due in part for promoting the türban as a political symbol. The Constitutional Court will decide whether the AKP needs to be sanctioned for such acts and be even closed down or not. Therefore, the türban has become a political issue that not only divides secular and religious Sunnis, but also makes and breaks parties and governments in Turkey. Attitudes and orientations to the türban and religious dress codes for women have become critical to the performance of the political parties, governments and democracy in Turkey. In fact, türban has now become the symbol of Islam in democratic politics in Turkey, and represents the role that religion plays in democratic politics of a Muslim society. In this paper, I will use the data collected right before the general election of July 22, 2007 in a nationally representative survey of voter attitudes, beliefs, values and reported behavior, and determine to what extent the adult population in Turkey perceived the türban as an issue of religious freedom of the pious women versus a political symbol of organized political Islamic movement at the time of the election. Secondly, the paper also scrutinizes the extent to which the voters perceive the türban as a pressing issue of the country that needed the attention of the political elite. Thirdly, a few studies have so far been conducted by Carkoglu, Göle, Kalaycioglu, Özdalga, and Toprak to examine the role of türban and religious women in Turkish politics and society, yet no study has yet been conducted on the role that attitudes toward the türban play in the decisions of the voters at the polls. The paper will examine the role that the türban played in determining the orientations of the voters toward the political parties, and to what extent it played a role in determining the voters’ choice at the polls on July 22, 2007 general elections, and thus contributed to the election victory of the AKP, a party all of the leaders of which have wives who don the türban. Finally, the paper concludes with an assessment of how far as a potent symbol of Sunni religiosity the türban influences the performance of democracy in Turkish society, where a huge majority of the people consists of Sunni Muslims

Party identification, islam and secularism in Turkey

The current Turkish party system is only a few decades old, and some parties are even younger. We should expect scant evidence of psychological ties of the voters and the political parties they support at the polls in Turkey. Indeed, earlier research on the Turkish parties and voting behavior, conducted by Hofferbert and Erguder (1985), Kalaycioglu (1994 and 1999), Ozbudun (2000), Sayari and Esmer (2002), Carkoglu (2004), and Carkoglu and Hinich (2005) indicated that Turkey tends to host a plenitude of political parties due to several cultural and ideological divides that separate the Turkish party systems in various blocs. The above-mentioned literature indicates that secular – Islamist divide is in part responsible in the socio-cultural cleavages that divide up the Turkish body politic. Moreover, data analysis seems to indicate that the management of macro economy and performance of the parties in government influence electoral choices, and the socio-cultural cleavages of the country play relatively large role in determining party preferences of the voters in Turkey. However, the earlier research has been inconclusive about the role played by such psychological factors as party identification in Turkey. In this paper first of all, the role that such socio-cultural cleavages as secularism versus Islamism in determining party identification play is examined. Secondly various determinants of party preferences are comparatively examined to evaluate the role played by such factors as ideology, identity, economic expectations and party identification of the voters in Turkish politics of the early 2000s. A causal model that assesses the relative influence that ideological, economic, and psychological (party identification) factors play in the determination of party preferences of the Turkish voters is developed and tested by the help of the data collected by means of a national survey in April – May 2006. In the final and the third part of the paper a comparative evaluation of factors that explain party preferences across secular and Islamist parties in Turkey are attempted, with the specific aim of ascertaining the role that reason versus dogma play in the party politics that operate in a Muslim society and secular democratic syste

Justice and development party at the Helm: resurgence of islam or restitution of right of center predominant party?

General elections of July 22, 2007 witnessed a very rare occasion in Turkish politics. The Justice and Development Party (AKP), which had been in government since the 2002 elections managed to increase its votes dramatically and obtain an overwhelming majority in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA). It was a first since the 1954 elections in the country. The leader and the front bench of the AKP have come from the political Islamist National Outlook (Milli Gorus) movement. With immaculate Islamist credentials the electoral victories of the AKP in the 2000s have been interpreted as the demise of secularism and resurgence of Islam in Turkey. Has 47 percent of the Turkish electorate voted for political Islam in the July 22, 2007 elections? Is it religious credentials of the AKP or its leader and the front bench that have attracted the voters in droves to the support of that party at the polls, or are there some other factors at play? This paper sets out to examine and compare the voter profiles in the 2002 and 2007 elections, with the objective of determining the profiles of the voters who supported the AKP versus its main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the champion of secularism in Turkish politics. The paper sets out to ascertain whether the voter profiles of the Turkish parties have changed between 2002 and 2007, and how? The nationally representative election surveys of 2002 and 2007 will be used to analyze such individual level characteristics of attitudes, beliefs and values of the Turkish voters, and assess the role played by religiosity, economic expectations and the performance of the economy, foreign policy, and in specific EU – Turkey relations, parochialism, and nationalist feelings in determining the preferences of the voters across the left – right spectrum in Turkey. Such an analysis will enable us to unearth the importance of religiosity in the voters’ choices, and the extent to which Turkish voters have shunned away from secularism per se

Public choice and foreign affairs: democracy and international relations in Turkey

In a democracy it is through the process of voting that people find an opportunity to register their likes and dislikes of domestic and foreign policy decisions most effectively. In Turkey, the recent national elections on 22 July 2007 provided an opportunity to observe the nexus between voters' choices and foreign policy issues, Questions pertaining to problems facing the Country and the campaign issues fail to give any clue as to whether people paid attention to foreign policy in making their choices among the political parties of the country. However, a closer examination of the factors determining the vote indicates that, although party identification and satisfaction with the performance of the economy and the expectations of the government in managing the economy played major roles, attitudes towards the European Union (EU), nationalism, and globalization closely followed in magnitude those two factors in determining the voters' party preferences across the left-right spectrum. While AKP supporters had the most favorable attitude towards the EU, MHP supporters appeared highly nationalistic, and CHP voters seemed most influenced by positive orientations to openness to the world

Attitudinal orientation to party organizations in Turkey in the 2000s

The Turkish party system experienced a serious blow in the early 1980s, when the military government in power closed down all the former legal political parties. Therefore, little evidence of strong psychological ties between voters and the political parties they supported at the polls is expected. This essay draws upon existing literature on voting behavior to develop four hypotheses to explain partisan affiliations of Turkish voters. Each of the hypotheses is then put to empirical tests, using data collected by means of a nationally representative survey. The four independent variables used in the four hypotheses are the role of parents' party identification (socialization), ideological orientations, economic expectations, and the ethnic identities of voters. Socialization emerges as a major determinant of partisan affiliation with the relatively older Republican People's Party (CHP) and Nationalist Action Party (MHP), while identifiers with the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) take few cues from their parents and pay more attention to the economic performance of that party in government. Ideology seems to play a major role in determining the psychological orientations of those who feel attached to the CHP versus the AKP or the MHP but little role in differentiating AKP from MHP voters. Ethnicity only plays a role in partisan affiliation with the MHP

Hicab, türban, and democracy: religious freedom versus political protest

The attire of women, in particular the style of donning of the headscarves to cover the head, neck and the bosoms of women (türban) by pious Sunni women has once again become the center of controversy in Turkish higher education and politics. The amended versions of articles 10 and 42 of the 1982 Constitution of Turkey, which enhance equality before the law of the Turkish citizens, were referred to the scrutiny of the Constitutional Court as a potential breach of the secularist principles of the Republic. Almost simultaneously, the AKP, which won the most votes and seats in the National Assembly after the July 22, 2007 elections and form the government, has also been indicted on the grounds of becoming the focal point of activities against secularism. The Constitutional Court will also decide whether the AKP will be closed down or not. This is all because the resuscitation of the debate on the donning of turban on the university campuses and other public institutions of Turkey has been defended as a religious right of the religious women by the conservative parties of Turkey, and resisted as the promotion of a symbol of political Islam by the secularist parties and political forces of the country. In this paper, I will use the data collected during June 23 and July 16, 2007 in a nationally representative survey of voter attitudes, beliefs, values and reported behavior, and determine to what extent the adult population in Turkey perceived the türban as a religious right of the pious women and also as a symbol of religious freedom. Secondly, I will also examine the extent to which the voters perceive the türban as a pressing issue that needed the attention of the National Assembly and the government. Thirdly, a few studies have so far been conducted by Carkoglu, Göle, Kalaycioglu, Özdalga, and Toprak to examine the role of türban in Turkish politics and society, and none so far on the role that attitudes toward the türban play in the decisions of the voters at the polls. I will examine the role the türban played in determining the party preferences of the voters at the polls on July 22, 2007, and thus contributed to the election victory of the AKP, all of the leaders of which have wives who don the türban

Türkiye’de dindarlık: uluslararası bir karşılaştırma (Religiosity in Turkey: an internaional comparison)

It is a report of findings of the national survey of attitudes on religiosity in Turkey as part of an international survey consisting of 44 countries which belong to the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) in 2008 - 2009

Türkiye'de dindarlık: uluslararası bir karşılaştırma

2008 yılı International Social Survey Programı'na (ISSP) ait Dindarlık saha araştırmasının Türkiye'de yapılmış olan kısmının bulgularının 1998 ISSP Dindarlık araştırmasına ait bulguları ile karşılaştırılmasından ibaret görgül çalışmanın kamuya sunulan raporudur