TURKISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PROCESS OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CENTER’S CHANGE IN TURKEY

Özet

Öz The purpose of this article is to describe the experiences the conservative sectors of Turkish society have gone through during the process of Turkish modernization which is marked by the Ottoman/Turkish ulama’s beginning to lose their leading role in society. We will attempt to discuss the venture of the Turkish conservatism, which came to be marginalized from the social and political center in the late years of the Ottoman Empire, in three stages in the context of religious institutions and values. These stages can be schemed as 1) to be pushed from the center to periphery in the late years of the Ottoman rule, 2) to be marginalized or go underground in the early years of the Republic, 3) to come close again to, or re-occupy, the center in the post-1950s. These stages become meaningful mostly in the contexts of conflicts over religion and secularism which have taken place between the political and social center.