Islamokemalism (Turkish: İslamokemalizm, İslamcı Atatürkçülük, Atatürkçü İslamcılık) is a Turkish-Islamic synthesist ideology which believes in the fundamentals of Kemalism (Turkish nationalism, Republicanism, Populism, Secularism, Statism, and Reformism) although either adds Islamism, or replaces secularism with Islamism. It can also refer to Islamists who admire Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.[1][2]
Turkish Islamists who quarrelled with their Cemaats were forced to renew their alliance, and they had decided to fight the Cemaats with the support of the Turkish state, when it was staunchly Kemalist and when the Turkish army was filled with Kemalists and Idealists who were angered by the Cemaats, and the Vatan Party and MHP became the new allies of these Islamists. There were common grounds of Islamism and Kemalism which made Kemalism appealing to Islamists, and vice versa, such as political parties merging and creating new ideologies. Islamokemalism grew during the period of Tunçer Kılınç. Many Turks who also love the Seljuk Empire and Ottoman Empire, as well as the Republic, are drawn to the ideology.[3]
Although not all Islamokemalists support Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Islamokemalism grew under Erdoğan, who bridged the gap between Islamists and nationalists by fusing both ideologies, and embracing the Ottoman past while admiring Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.[4][5] The Islamokemalist policies of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were likened to the Eurasianism of Vladimir Putin, the Christian-Democracy of Viktor Orbán, the Judeo-Christianity of Donald Trump, the Pentecostalism of Jair Bolsonaro, the populist Catholicism of Matteo Salvini, and the Hindutva of Narendra Modi.[6]
