The Relationship Between Religious Values and Politics in Türkiye: Research on the Voting Preference of Religious Communities

Abstract

This study investigates the voting preferences of religious communities with a standardized structure in Türkiye. The results of the qualitative research conducted in Diyarbakır with“six” religious congregations that declared that they would support the People's Alliance and “one” religious congregation that declared that they would support the Nation's Alliance before the 2023 elections revealed that religious values are dominant in the vote preferences of religious congregations. However, when we look at the reasons for the emergence of their values, we see that it is not based solely on faith; the religious ideology that emerged as a result of the political traumas caused by the religious policies of the single-party period on the religious community is an important reference point in the vote preference of religious communities. Due to the low number of candidates in an election with two candidates, an understanding of the lesser of two evils was adopted.