THE UNEVEN PATH OF SECULARIZATION: THE CASES OF THREE BALKAN SOCIETIES (BULGARIA, ROMANIA, AND TÜRKIYE)
THE UNEVEN PATH OF SECULARIZATION: THE CASES OF THREE BALKAN SOCIETIES (BULGARIA, ROMANIA, AND TÜRKIYE)

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to trace, in comparative terms, the trajectory of secularization and religious revival in Bulgaria, Romania, and Türkiye. These three countries were chosen because, starting from a relatively similar position, they demonstrated three different trajectories. In all three societies, religion played a role as an element of state legitimacy during the 19th and early 20th centuries, but all three countries experienced forced top-down secularization – Kemalist modernization reforms after the foundation of the Republic of Türkiye, and socialist secularization in Bulgaria and Romania after 1944. However, the outcome in the countries under review is different – in Bulgaria, society and the state remained secularized after the end of the socialist era, in Romania, in recent years the Orthodox Church has a stronger role than the church has in Bulgaria, and in Türkiye, a number of factors have slowed down the secularization of society, and since the mid-1970s, the political Islamism has been at rise. During its rule after 2002, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) attempted to strengthen the role of Islam in Türkiye, but, paradoxically, failed to reverse some of the secularization trends in society.

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