Secularism in Turkey derives from Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's Six Arrows: republicanism, populism, laïcité, reformism, nationalism and statism.

In practice, the country recognizes Greek, Armenian and Jewish religious minorities but does not grant them all the rights stipulated in the treaty.

[12] The 1928 constitution established the country as a secular state and provides for freedom of belief and worship and the private dissemination of religious ideas.

[29] Religious education is compulsory at the primary and secondary levels, according to Article 24 of the constitution, and Sunni theology predominates.

The directorate regulates the operation of the country's 77,777 registered mosques and employs local and provincial imams (who are civil servants).

[31] In 2009 the state TV channel, TRT, announced its plan to air programs reflecting the interests of the Alevi minority.

They also regulated Muslim charitable religious foundations, including schools, hospitals and orphanages, assessing whether they are operating within their stated objectives.

In 1974, amid political tensions over Cyprus, the High Court of Appeals ruled that minority foundations had no right to acquire properties beyond those listed in the 1936 declarations.

[1] Minority religious groups, particularly the Greek and Armenian Orthodox communities, have lost a number of properties to the state in the past.

On July 8, 2008, the ECHR ruled that Turkey had violated the Ecumenical Patriarchate's property rights to the orphanage on Büyükada.

[7] The Caferis, the country's principal Shi'a community (between 500,000 and 1,000,000, concentrated in eastern Turkey and Istanbul), do not face restrictions on their religious freedom.

They build and operate their own mosques and appoint their own imams; however, as with the Alevis, by 2009 their places of worship had no legal status and received no support from the Diyanet.

These administrative challenges, restrictions on training religious leaders and difficulty obtaining visas have led to a decrease in the number of Christian clergy.

[7] Article 219 of the penal code prohibits imams, priests, rabbis and other religious leaders from "reproaching or vilifying" the government or the laws of the state while performing their duties.

[7] In 2022, the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul continued its efforts to reopen the Halki seminary on the island of Heybeli in the Sea of Marmara.

[7] In 2007, authorities continued enforcing a ban dated 1982[34] on the wearing of headscarves by students at universities and by civil servants in public buildings.

According to a 5 June 2008 ruling, parliament violated the constitutional principle of secularism when it passed amendments (supported by the AKP and the MHP) to lift the headscarf ban on university campuses.

[35] In its November 10, 2005 decision on Leyla Şahin v. Turkey, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the ban was "legitimate" to prevent the influence of religion in state affairs.

Moreover, this restriction of dress, which only applies to women, is discriminatory and violates their right to education, freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and privacy".

[35] Changes in the law saw the ban on headscarves eliminated in some government buildings including parliament, the police forces and the military by 2017.

[7] In October 2006 a prosecutor pressed criminal charges against Hakan Taştan and Turan Topal (Muslim converts to Christianity) for violating Article 301 ("insulting Turkishness"), inciting hatred against Islam and compiling data on private citizens for a Bible correspondence course.

On the basis of reports that the defendants were approaching grade- and high-school students in Silivri and attempting to convert them to Christianity, police searched one man's home, went to the men's office and confiscated two computers, books and papers.

[1] On 28 May 2009, court proceedings continued in the 2006 case against two Muslim converts to Christianity charged with "insulting Turkishness" in violation of Article 301 of the penal code, inciting hatred of Islam and secretly compiling data on private citizens for a Bible correspondence course.