Gamze Yücesan Özdemir Secularism is often discussed in these lands as a ‘lifestyle choice’ or a regulation concerning the organisation of the state. However, secularism is much more than that. Secularism is the material and political condition for the coexistence of citizens in capitalist and socialist societies, and therefore for the existence of the people. It is a revolutionary principle that enables the equality of workers, women, young people, and citizens of different faiths and identities. Therefore, defending secularism goes beyond a constitutional norm; it is defending the sovereignty of the people, the independence of the country, and the possibility of social liberation. Secularism is the principle that brings the source of sovereignty down from the heavens to earth. Religion has always played a contradictory role in class-based societies. On the one hand, it has been a refuge for workers; on the other, it has functioned as a legitimacy device for the ruling classes. In every historical moment where the regime and religious authority have been intertwined, inequalities have been sanctified, poverty presented as destiny, and obedience as virtue. Secularism is the breaking of this mechanism of sanctification. Being a people begins precisely here: where sovereignty arises not from divine will but from the common will of the people. Secularism is ordinary people determining their own destiny. In pre-secular social orders, workers were condemned to a regime of obedience legitimised by religious commands, their labour and lives confiscated in the name of the sacred. Secularism is a historical break with this fatalism. It is shaped by the accumulation of social life, human reason and historical progress. This common ground is the basis for people of different faiths and identities to live together as a people. IT CANNOT PROTECT ITS SOVEREIGNTY Secularism is citizenship. Without secularism, the people are not citizens, but subjects and slaves. When religion, which is a matter of personal conscience, becomes politicised, it becomes a tool that determines social relations, law, education and the distribution of national resources. Thus, instead of a society of citizens, a submissive populace emerges. Citizenship is the right to scientific education, the right to health, the right to decent housing and a dignified life. Without secularism, there can be no citizenship; without citizenship, there can be no people. Societies that cannot organise themselves as a people cannot preserve their integrity and sovereignty. The path to society's encounter with reason and science lies through secularism. Scientific education means that children are not condemned to an educational system surrounded by fear, obedience and a sense of fate. Scientific education enables young people to think freely, to question and to build their own future with their own hands. It means that young people can answer the question ‘how should we live?’ for themselves and take the will to change the world into their own hands. Secularism is also fundamental to class struggle. It is an objection to the irreconcilable contradiction between capital and labour being concealed under a reactionary veil. It is a stand against reactionary forces that render labour speechless and powerless in the face of capital. It is about removing that thick, reactionary ideological veil that legitimises workplace deaths by calling them ‘fate,’ renders heavy exploitation invisible through shared religious practices between workers and bosses, and thus subjugates workers. It is a clear and unambiguous class stance against those who normalise exploitation through gratitude and glorify obedience as a virtue. Being a people is possible not through calls for allegiance, but through struggle built around the common interests of labour. Secularism is also independence. Imperialism mobilises ideological and cultural channels alongside military and economic tools to control societies. In the geography where our country is located, the relationships imperialism has established with reactionary structures increase wars and destruction. Citizens must not be divided based on religious references; citizen solidarity is a prerequisite for full independence. LET'S STAND UP Wherever secularism is undermined, a principle is eroded, and the common ground for society's coexistence is destroyed. Whenever differences in belief, identity and lifestyle become tools in the struggle for regime power, the common life of society weakens. This is because secularism is the guarantee that people of different beliefs can coexist in social life. When this guarantee disappears, society fragments and the bonds of common life begin to unravel. Therefore, wherever secularism recedes, what erodes is the people's will to live together and their capacity to build a shared future. In conclusion, secularism is the revolutionary principle of being a people. Therefore, defending secularism is not about preserving a principle of the past but about the will to build a shared future as a people. Let us embrace this will on the shores of the sea of fire surrounding our homeland. Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Laiklik: Halk olmanın devrimci ilkesi, published in BirGün newspaper on March 7, 2026.