ABSTRACT
Religious extremism according to the Constitution means discrimination in favour of a religion or a sect. The penal code seems to go further and comprise all activities aiming at influencing governmental institutions to follow religious principles. These provisions contain a protection against Islamic fundamentalism but it is debatable to what extent they are nowadays applied. The Republic was born simultaneously with the first communist and fascist dictatorships and consequently there existed an obvious need for protecting the Constitution against political extremism. The language discrimination exists in practice as Turkish, in the interest of nation-building, became the only official language, and a name law enforcing Turkish first and family names was introduced after the Western model. More tradition-bound supporters of the democratic parties have never been inclined to favour quick reforms and remain disposed to attach greater importance to protect the state against the individual than to recognize the needs of the citizens to be protected against the state.
