Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
Authorities have exhumed the body of a religious leader who died a decade ago as part of wide-ranging judicial investigations into two Islamic orders with poor relations with the government.
A financial crimes operation targeting the Süleymancı religious sect, led by Alihan Kuriş, whose given name is Ali Erhan Kuriş, 46, was carried out across 17 provinces. Detention orders were issued for 49 people, including Kuriş.
The acquisition of French grocery chain Carrefour's Turkish subsidiary, CarrefourSA, by A101's parent company Yeni Mağazacılık, owned by a religious conservative family, has sparked intense online debate over potential restrictions on alcohol sales.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a U-turn about the oath sworn by cadets graduating from a military academy in which they drew their swords and promised to be the soldiers of Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in protecting secularism in the country. “Against whom are you drawing these swords?” asked Erdogan eight days after the incident, joining the chorus that associated the unofficial oath with the military tutelage that Turkey suffered in the past. Then, arguing that the new graduates had fallen into a trap set by others, he told a workshop arranged for religious high school graduates that he would fire those who had influenced the cadets.
A historic sanatorium on Heybeliada — the island also known as Halki — is set to be transferred to the Directorate of Religious Affairs for the second time, after a previous transfer was annulled by a court. The move comes as the same island is at the center of another religious question: the possible reopening of the Greek Orthodox Halki Seminary.
A district governor in Ankara has been surprisingly reassigned following his religious references, political posturing against CHP members, and social media arguments. Meanwhile, the President of the Constitutional Court addressed jurists with similar religious references while he was demanding they ensure justice through religious frameworks.
The secularism-versus-religion debate continues in full force, with the ruling alliance fueling tensions after a father who objected to the use of a religious hymn as a school bell at his child’s school in Kocaeli’s Derince district was detained.
Comedian Egemen Şimşek was arrested on charges of insulting religious values held by a segment of the public.Istanbul’s Küçükçekmece Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into Şimşek over jokes about Moses and Jesus in his stand-up performance titled “Contrary Thoughts.”
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.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has appointed Istanbul Mufti Professor Safi Arpaguş as the new head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), replacing Ali Erbaş, whose term has ended after the completion of his term, according to a decree published in the Official Gazette.
A non-governmental organization has filed a criminal complaint with the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office over three recent Islamic sermons issued by the Presidency of Religious Affairs and delivered in mosques nationwide.
Five Alevi cultural and religious institutions have announced their departure from the Federation of Alevi Foundations (AVF), citing a departure from founding principles under the leadership of Professor İzzettin Doğan.