Turkish President defends secularism after remarks by parliament speaker

ZAGREB: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today that the state should have an equal distance from all religious faiths, following Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman’s call for Turkey’s new constitution to drop all references to secularism.

In televised comments during his official visit to Zagreb, Erdogan said Kahraman had simply “expressed his opinion” on the new constitution debate, reported Turkish newspaper, Daily News.

He stressed that secularism was the idea that the state maintained “an equal distance from all belief groups,” and suggested that debates on the issue only distracted the country’s agenda.

Kahraman had sparked outrage late on April 25 by suggesting that the principle of secularism “must be removed” from Turkey’s constitution.

“As a Muslim country, why should we be in a situation where we are retreating from religion? We are a Muslim country. So we must have a religious constitution,” he said.

Turkish newspaper emphasized that secularism is the key for democracy and state of law in a Muslim society, and it is also the best cure for radicalization.