| Mehmet Murat BEKDŻK | |
| Editor-in-Chief |
|
Who are we? |
Our adult population is % 51.5 female and % 48.2 female. Even among the adult population, people between the ages 15 and 24 constitutes 45%. We a have a very young population. University graduates constitute 8.5%, high school graduates 41%, illiterates 6.1% and literate people without a diploma 3.6% of the population. Primary school graduates or lesser educated people constitute 50.3% of the people.
3.5% of the adult population earns 3.000 TL or more in a month, 68.4 of it earns 1.000 TL or less and 27.4% earns 500 TL or less.
86.1 of the adult population defines itself as Turkish, 10% as Kurdish or Zaza, 91% as Sunni Muslim and 4.9% as Alevi Muslim. Again, 54.2% of the adult population defines itself as devout, 30.3 % as believer, 30.3% as believer, 12.4% as pious, 1.4% as non-believer and 0.7% as atheist.
56.9% of women wear traditional scarf, 13.4% of them wear turban, 0,9% wear purdah and veil and 28.8% don’t cover their hair. 71.2% of women over 15 do cover their hair in a way.
32.3% of the population says that “girls in primary and secondary education should cover their hair”, 22.3% says that “the judicial system must be determined by religious rules” and 52.9% say that “women working in public sector should be able to cover their hair”.
On the other hand, 58.1% of the population says that “religious and state affairs should be separated”, 77.7% says that “the state should support (Sunni, Alevi, Christian etc…) citizens to live their religion (belief and practice)”and 63.6% says “Turkey should be a member of EU”.
75.8% of the people “worries about an eventual scission of Turkey”, 59% “worries about an eventual establishment of religious laws", 79.5% "worries about the rupture with traditions” and 82.6% "worries about deterioration of the economy".
65.8% thinks that “the Kurdish problem results from the fact that Kurds wants to build a separate state”, 36.6 thinks that “the origin of the Kurdish problem is the discrimination against Kurds” and 79.3% thinks that “the Kurdish problems is provoked by foreigners”.
Computer analysis of answers of the respondents gives us 9 groups. But when these 9 groups are placed in a graphic with two axis of (6) values, titled "modern lifestyle-conservative lifestyle" and "secularism-fundamentalism", we obtain 4 different sets but all of the nine groups fits only in two sets. 8 groups of Tarhan Erdem are placed in one set and only 1 group in another set. 85-90% of the population is in one set and only 10-15% is grouped in the second set. Therefore, we may think that our society consists of two sets.
In this contest, I want to quote the relevant comment of Mr. Cüneyt Ülsever, published in the newspaper Hürriyet, dated 26 February 2009.
86-90% of the population defines themselves "close to conservative lifestyle" and only 10-15% "close to modern lifestyle".
The "modern lifestyle”, as the Republic has been trying to shape, is now adopted only by a big minority. And the people that adopts or that is close to a conservative lifestyle around the religion represent the big majority (85-90%) among the adult population. The conflict is there.
The conflict is not around the secularism-fundamentalism axis. Although the people that adopt modern lifestyle (10-15%) constitute the biggest group which is worried about the probability of the establishment of religious rules, there is no such demand within the biggest part of the society. Indeed, 73.5% of the voters of AKP answered "True" to the statements that “Religions and state affairs should be separate” and 83.6% gave a positive answer to the statement that “The state should be secular”.
What is questioned in Turkey is the lifestyle imposed by the Republic but the secularism principle of the same Republic is not significantly questioned.
As Prof.Dr. Binnaz Toprak and colleagues established in their field survey titled “Being Different in Turkey, the People Othered in the Axis of Religion and Conservatism” (December 2008), the people adopting a “conservative lifestyle” apply a neighborhood pressure on the others.
Applying a social pressure goes parallel with coming to power. An important fact that supports this view is the increase of the members of the employee union, Memur-Sen, known by its sympathy to the government, to 315.000 in 2008 from 42.000 in 2002, while the other employee union KESK, which opposes to the government, have lost 39.000 of its members.
Of course, you, the readers would evaluate whether a new era starts or not.
But the only indisputable fact is that, the people who used to believe that they are the dominant majority is badly surprised to see that in fact they are only a big minority and that Tarhan Erdem’s survey scientifically established this fact.
