Abstract

The traditional Turkish pragmatism politics which carried the Turks from the Central Asia to Asia Minor and then the Europe created a relation between the state and the religion where religion was always a means in the hands of the state. In the Turkish state tradition, religion is a dependent variant of the leaders of the state where it is an active means for the dominion of the state. The claim that Turks adopted the idea of “Ilay-ı Kelimetullah” (to sublimate the name of Allah in the universe) is only an act which Turkish statesmen used to legalize their imperial visions rather than promoting Islam. So the universal state mentality of Turks derived from the mythology of traditional philosophy of state, not from Islam itself. On the other hand the breaking point in Turkish history which carried the nation to the laic principles was the Kemalist era. Many Republican intellectuals argue that to resist secularism means to resist the main values, principles and objectives of the Turkish Republic (ÖZEK, 1962: 72-73) Secularism is the sprit of the new regime. Ziya Gökalp, one of the “social engineers” and the “official sociologist” of the Republic stated that Islamic community era was over any more and the idea of “ummah” actually dissolved the idea of nationality. Gökalp wanted religion to go back to its inner and personal area and it could still stay as one of the components of the Turkish nation.