The role of the Presidency of Religious Affairs on deradicalization activities of Turkey: The case of prison preachers

This master's thesis discusses the role of the Presidency of Religious Affairs in countering terrorist organizations that exploit religion and violent extremism. In that sense, it focuses on the role of the institution in preventing, countering radicalization, and deradicalization and its activities in this regard. It is argued that the Presidency of Religious Affairs in Turkey is a considerably important actor in countering terrorist organizations that exploit religion as well as in deradicalizing people who had attended to such organizations or involved in such activities. In this context, it asks the question of what is the role of prison preachers appointed by the institution to prisons in the deradicalization of individuals. Therefore, empirical data from eight official preachers that work in various prisons in Turkey have been instrumentalized through semi-structured in-depth interviews in order to understand the role of the Presidency in countering religion-exploiting terrorist organizations and in deradicalizing members of such organizations. The selected prison preachers are in close connection with convicted members of religion-exploiting terrorist organizations, including FETO and DAESH. In addition, the activities and publications carried out by the Presidency of Religious Affairs in the context of the fight against the mentioned terrorist organizations are examined. The data obtained emphasize that religious rehabilitation is necessary to eliminate the legitimacy of terrorist practices for organization members and to reject their theoretical and ideological justifications. It is revealed that the current studies of the Presidency of Religious Affairs in countering terrorist organizations that exploit religion and violent extremism, and deradicalization activities for the members of these organizations are crucial. It is understood that the contact of prison preachers appointed to prisons with people who are detained or convicted because of their membership to a terrorist organization exploiting religion is considerably important. Such a mechanism needs to be implemented in a more systematic way. Lastly, it is seen that the practice of assigning a preacher to the prison of the Presidency of Religious Affairs is an example of Daniel Koehler's D-type deradicalization program.