Religious Affairs Directorate head Ali Erbaş’s term has come to an end. He held the post for eight years.
In other words, during the last eight years of the ruling party’s 23-year tenure, Turkey’s religious life was under Erbaş’s administration. Heads of the directorate, known as the Diyanet in Turkish, have always been subjects of debate, but Erbaş has been at the very peak of this controversy.
CRITICISM OVER ATATÜRK
“Diyanet” literally means “religion.”
The directorate was founded by Atatürk himself upon the proclamation of the Republic, as an institution designed to regulate religious affairs within a secular republic. During his term, Erbaş was most often criticized for never mentioning Atatürk’s name—neither in Friday sermons nor in official statements.
A MESSAGE WITH A SWORD
In 2020, during the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque—a ceremony also attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—Erbaş climbed the pulpit carrying a sword to deliver the sermon. Historically, a sword symbolizes conquest by war.
Leaving aside the case of the young lieutenants expelled from the army last year for performing an unofficial oath ceremony with swords, the sight of a cleric reciting a prayer while holding a sword is hard to come to terms with in today’s world and in this country. Religion is expected to preach peace, not war.
MASSIVE BUDGET
For 2025, the Diyanet has been allocated a colossal 130.1 billion lira ($3.15 billion)—far surpassing the budgets of six ministries combined. Erbaş argued that most of it goes on personnel salaries and is still insufficient.
Yet, when Erbaş took office in 2017, Turkey was already showing signs of sliding into an economic crisis. Soon after, the crisis deepened exponentially. As the people grew poorer and the government kept calling for “austerity,” the Diyanet only kept expanding.
AND THE AUDI
Erbaş also faced controversy when he requested an Audi A8 as his official car—reviving the “poor people vs. spendthrift state” debate.
Erbaş said he had used his old official car for seven years. In his defense, he argued: “When I was a rector eight years ago, I used the same Audi. But for the President of Religious Affairs, they found it excessive.”
He also made headlines with reports that he took an assistant with him to do his ironing on pilgrimage—claims he denied. Reports that his wife traveled more than once to Saudi Arabia via VIP services for the pilgrimage also repeatedly found their way into the news.
CONSERVATIVE STRONGHOLD
The Diyanet has long been dominated by conservative right-wing cadres. It has traditionally been seen as a career path for children of conservative families in Anatolia to enter public service.
By contrast, Alevis—who make up a significant portion of Turkey’s Muslim population—have virtually no representation within the institution. Under Erbaş, not only was there no concrete step toward Alevis, there wasn’t even a single positive message. As expected, he was staunchly against LGBT rights and advocated veiling for women.
WILL THE NEXT BE BETTER?
Erbaş often quoted the Quran, saying “The world is a place of testing.” For Turkey, the past eight years might be seen either as Erbaş’s test with the country or the country’s test with Erbaş. But another Turkish saying is equally relevant: “The newcomer makes one long for the one who left.” Whether that’s good or bad news for Ali Erbaş remains to be seen. But what we do know is that the belief that “nothing better will come” is deeply rooted among the public.
