Modern Turkey:
land of variety and contrasts

n Water-seller on the streets of Istanbul

In downtown Istanbul loud rock music mixes with calls to prayer from the city’s many minarets. Bearded clerics stand shoulder-to-shoulder with clean-cut businessmen in the mosques during prayers, while on the Bosphorus waterfront young women sporting designer clothes and sunglasses stroll past housewives clad in traditional scarfs and chadors (veils). In the crowded bazaars, in the shadow of ancient Byzantine basilicas and modern mosques, oriental spices share shelf space with Danish beer.

Fascinating blend

Modern Turkey is both traditional and cosmopolitan, Eastern and Western, religious and secular – a fascinating blend of contrasts. Its rich cultural heritage and dense concentration of historic and religious relics is a result of more than 2,000 years of turbulent history. Yet Turkey is also rapidly modernising, its dynamic economy a complex mix of modern industry and commerce along with traditional agriculture.

Secular

Turkey was founded in 1923 as a secular republic on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire by Mustafa Kemal, a World War I hero, who attributed the empire’s demise to the centrality of religion, namely Islam, in its administration. This, he believed, had caused the empire to stagnate and lose pace with the technological and economic advances taking place in the rest of Europe.

Kemal, who became known as ‘Atatürk’ or ‘Father of the Turks’, united what was left of the empire’s Turkish core after its disastrous participation in the war as a German ally. He then began an ambitious program of reform, with secularisation and education as key words, aimed at forging a new Turkish identity.

Reforms

The reforms were continued after his death in 1938 and still form the ideological base of modern Turkey. Referred to as ‘Kemalism’, it is founded on secularism, nationalism and modernisation and looks to the West for inspiration and support.

Today, Turkey is a democratic secular state with a constitution that guarantees religious freedom. It has adopted the rules of the European Human Rights Commission, joined NATO in 1952 and aspires to membership of the European Union (EU). An EU report last year, however, concluded that Turkey needed to improve its human rights record, minority rights and market-economy practices before it would be considered for EU membership.

Success story

While Turkey is in many ways a success story, it is also a country characterised by division and pent-up tensions. The rise of Turkish nationalism, brought about by Atatürk’s reforms, alienated ethnic Turks from Turkish citizens of other ethnic backgrounds, such as Kurds and Armenians. Today, tensions continue to simmer between these groups.

Although the country is officially secular, 98 per cent of the population is Muslim. Christians, who account for only 0.3 per cent of the population, are able to practise their faith fairly openly, albeit with some restrictions. Occasionally, however, Christian activities are disrupted by extremist groups.

Visible

In recent years, the Church has become a more visible presence in the fabric of everyday life in Turkey, gaining increased acceptance and respect from the authorities and the Muslim community.

n Colourful sweets and spices on sale in an Istanbul bazaar

This has partly been due to the action taken by the Christian community in the wake of the natural disasters that have recently plagued Turkey, the worst of which were two devastating earthquakes in 1999.

Churches and Christian organisations, including the Bible Society in Turkey (BST), joined together to provide material assistance and consolation for the tens of thousands of people who lost their homes and families – actions that were appreciated by local community leaders. (See following story)

In this context, the BST, formed in 1966, provides Scriptures for Turkey’s scattered communities of Christians through churches, bookshops and bookfairs in a non-confrontational way. Last year they distributed nearly 282,000 Scriptures as well as working on a number of other projects, such as an illustrated Children’s Bible and New Testaments in Syriac and Aramaic.

A much-needed new translation of the Turkish Bible was also launched in October (see story) with funds from Opportunity 21 (O-21), a global UBS Scripture expansion program, which is investing more than US$500,000 in helping the BST to meet the particular challenges of serving the Christian community in Turkey.