Islam in Modern Turkey: Religion, Politics, and Literature in a Secular State

When the Turkish republic was founded in 1923, secularism was adopted as one of the key principles of the new state, and religious expression was brought under strict government supervision. Republican ideology and its associated institutions came to dominate much of everyday life. Only after 1950, when the centre-right Democrat party was elected, did this repressive attitude to religion cease. The growth in popular religious sentiment became particularly evident in the 1980s with the proliferation of religious newspapers and literature.