The Influence of Religion on Turkish Foreign Policy

Abstract

After World War II, the Turkish government began to loosen the religious (Islamic) restrictions imposed under Mustafa Kemal, due to fear of popularity of the communist ideologue in the world at that time. Turkish ruling circles wanted to avoid the spread of communist ideology in Turkey via strengthening their religion, because the Soviet Union was a proximate neighbor to that country.

 The Turkish government has taken effective steps to ease religious restrictions. In particular, religion was introduced, as a subject, in schools, at the same time theology faculties were opened in universities; it became voluntary to go to the Muslim holy city of Mecca and perform Hajj; religious schools were opened, the massive construction of mosques and the restoration of the existing ones began. Various Islamic religious organizations were launched. In addition, the secular Republic of Turkey became a member country of Islamic organizations: "Islamic World League" (IWL) and "Islamic Conference Organization" (ICO) that were created on the basis of religion. If before that, Turkey acted on foreign agenda together with the USA and European countries, this time it started to take independent steps in the foreign-political direction and emphasized its Islamic identity via joining the mentioned organizations.