LAICISM, MULTICULTURALISM, DEMOCRACY AND ALEVIANS IN TURKEY WHITIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE CONCEPT OF “TOLERANCE”

Abstract

This article is focused on hypothesis that there is close relationships between the concepts of secularism and
democratization, and on hypothesis that the concept of tolerance is also plays an important role for discussing
these two concepts. The main assumption of this article is that one of the main problem of the Turkish
democracy has suffered from the lack of multiculturalism. In other words, o5ne of the main problem of our
democracy is to produce answers of how the various social minorities live together in peace.
One of the main problems of the Kemalist secularism is that secularist policies of the state has not been
successful to draw a line between secularism and religion with the help of the concepts of tolerance. In this
study, the problems of the Alevîans, which have been caused by the caesaropapist state tradition of the Turkish
Republic, will be argued.