Abolition of Religous Public Services at the Third Republic, Laicism

The idea that Turkish laicism is founded on the model of French laicism is shared by almost in all kind of intellectual and political circles. However, the institutional and organizational existence of Turkish laicism considerably differs from the French model and this fact leads apparent contradictions. Those who talk about “the French model” in general terms and not clarify the historical phases of that model are surprised by the presence of Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı (Presidency of Religious Affairs), which does not comply with the French laicism model, where the State and Church are separated. The question that a state pays salaries to imams can be called a laic state arises from the same deficient comparison. They suppose that when the Republic of Turkey was founded, the phase of 1905’s Separation of the Churches and the State or the short phase of Revolutionary Separation were taken as an example. The Modern French system of laicism is formed through the phases of Revolutionary Separation Period (1789), Concordat (1801) and Separation (1905). All these phases, which were completed when the Republic of Turkey was established, have certainly become an example for the founders of the Republic. It is not the Revolutionary Separation Period or the Separation of 1905, but the example of the Concordat Laicism (1801) that is taken as a model by the founders of Turkish Republic. In 1801, Napoleon and the Pope signed a Concordat; in terms of this contract a minister of religion was assigned, priests became public officials, money was laid on the budget to cover the expenses of the churches and the religious bureaucracy, the system of state-recognized religions was adopted and religion became a public service. In 1905, the State and the Church were separated by a law, called The Separation Law, the religious public services were privatized, and the religion as an organized or individual activity was conceptualized as worship (le culte) and regulated by the principle of freedom. Concordat is taken as an example or model in the foundation of the Turkish Republic. Turkish laicism can be called the Diyanet Laicism. In order to discuss the possibility of evolution of the Diyanet Laicism to The Separation, we need to study French phases of laicism.