{"id":17649,"date":"2026-02-18T19:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/17649\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T19:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T19:17:10","slug":"erdogan-slams-secularism-manifesto-signed-by-168-public-figures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/17649\/","title":{"rendered":"Erdo\u011fan slams secularism manifesto signed by 168 public figures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan has criticized a manifesto titled \u201cWe Defend Secularism Together,\u201d signed by 168 writers, artists, academics, journalists and professional association representatives, saying he would not allow it to polarize the public during Ramadan, Turkish Minute<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0manifesto<\/a>\u00a0was published on Tuesday, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Turkey\u2019s adoption of its civil code, and was opened for public signature online.<\/p>\n

It says Turkey is under a \u201creactionary, pro-sharia siege\u201d and claims that the country faces pressure to be \u201cTalibanized,\u201d blaming what it calls US-led plans and naming US President Donald Trump and Israel. It accuses the government of steps that weaken secular education, the secular legal order and secular public life and says defenders of the secular republic are being treated as criminals.<\/p>\n

Erdo\u011fan responded on Wednesday during a meeting in Ankara with governors from Turkey\u2019s 81 provinces, saying there is no \u201csecularism problem\u201d in Turkey and accusing the manifesto\u2019s backers of trying to sow division during Ramadan.<\/p>\n

The dispute involves a long-running divide over religion and the state in Turkey. The republic was founded in 1923, and secularism became a constitutional principle in 1926, while the civil code modeled on European states\u2019 laws helped shift family and personal status rules from religious to civil law.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s version of secularism differs from the US model of the separation of church and state. The Turkish state regulates much of Sunni religious life through the Directorate of Religious Affairs, a state institution that oversees mosques and issues religious guidance, a structure critics say allows governments to shape public religion.<\/p>\n

Erdo\u011fan\u2019s Justice and Development Party (AKP), in power since 2002, has often argued that earlier state policies restricted religious conservatives, while critics say AKP-era policy expanded the role of religion in schools and public institutions. The manifesto reflects that broader dispute, using language that casts current policy as a rollback of the secular foundations of the republic.<\/p>\n

The initial list of signatories included economist Korkut Boratav, historian Taner Timur, former lawmaker \u0130lhan Cihaner, novelist Ay\u015fe Kulin, actor M\u00fcjde Ar and journalist Timur Soykan.<\/p>\n

The online signature campaign drew thousands of signatures after it went live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan has criticized a manifesto titled \u201cWe Defend Secularism Together,\u201d signed by 168 writers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[12625,11968,312,12626,12627,12628,314,12629,12630,131,132,12631,12632,155],"class_list":{"0":"post-17649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stockholm","8":"tag-ayse-kulin","9":"tag-freedom-of-expression","10":"tag-human-rights","11":"tag-ilhan-cihaner","12":"tag-korkut-boratav","13":"tag-mujde-ar","14":"tag-president-recep-tayyip-erdogan","15":"tag-ramadan","16":"tag-secularism","17":"tag-stockholm","18":"tag-sweden","19":"tag-taner-timur","20":"tag-timur-soykan","21":"tag-turkey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}