Democratic politics in Turkey drove a resurgence of Islamic religiosity

Evidence

In Turkey, as elsewhere, democracy reinforced indigenization and the return to religion. “In their eagerness to curry favor with the public and gain votes, politicians —and even the military, the very bastion and guardian of secularism—had to take into account the religious aspirations of the population: not a few of the concessions they granted smacked of demagoguery.” Popular movements were religiously inclined. While elite and bureaucratic groups, particularly the military, were secularly oriented, Islamist sentiments manifested themselves within the armed forces, and several hundred cadets were purged from military academies in 1987 because of suspected Islamist sentiments. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 402

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader indigenization/resurgence-of-religion thesis in earlier chapters of this same book, where religious movements filled the vacuum after secular ideologies (communism, nationalism) collapsed.
• SEED: The counterintuitive point that electoral democracy can actively strengthen religious fundamentalism rather than secularize a nation could anchor an essay on how political liberalization and religious conservatism can reinforce each other.