Sharia courts are abolished in Turkey, as part of Atatürk's Reforms.
Atatrk's Reforms (Turkish: Atatrk nklplar) were a series of political, legal, religious, cultural, social, and economic policy changes, designed to convert the new Republic of Turkey into a secular, modern nation-state, implemented under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatrk in accordance with the Kemalist ideology. His political party, the Republican People's Party (CHP) ran Turkey as a one-party-state, implemented these reforms starting in 1923. After Atatrk's death, his successor smet nn, continued one-party rule and Kemalist style reforms until the CHP lost to the Democrat Party in Turkey's second, truly multi-party election in 1950.
Central to the reforms was the belief that Turkish society had to "Westernize" (modernization achieved by adopting Western culture in areas such as politics (political reforms), economics (economic reforms), lifestyle (social reforms), law (legal reforms), alphabet (educational reforms), etc.) itself both politically and culturally in order to advance. The reforms involved a number of fundamental institutional changes that brought an end to many traditions, and followed a carefully planned program to unravel the complex system that had developed over previous centuries.The reforms began with the modernization of the constitution, including enacting the new Constitution of 1924 to replace the Constitution of 1921, and the adaptation of European laws and jurisprudence to the needs of the new republic. That was followed by a thorough secularization and modernization of the administration, with particular focus on the education system.
The elements of the political system visioned by Atatrk's Reforms developed in stages, but by 1935, when the last part of the Atatrk's Reforms removed the reference to Islam in the Constitution; Turkey became a secular (2.1) and democratic (2.1), republic (1.1) that derives its sovereignty (6.1) from the people. Turkish sovereignty rests with the Turkish Nation, which delegates its will to an elected unicameral parliament (position in 1935), the Turkish Grand National Assembly. The preamble also invokes the principles of nationalism, defined as the "material and spiritual well-being of the Republic" (position in 1935). The basic nature of the Republic is lacit (2), social equality (2), equality before law (10), and the indivisibility of the Republic and of the Turkish Nation (3.1)." Thus, it sets out to found a unitary nation-state (position in 1935) with separation of powers based on the principles of secular democracy.
Historically, Atatrk's reforms follow the Tanzimt ("reorganization") period of the Ottoman Empire, that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876, Abdul Hamid II's authoritarian regime from 18781908 that introduced large reforms in education and the bureaucracy, as well as the Ottoman Empire's experience in prolonged political pluralism and rule of law by the Young Turks during the Second Constitutional Era from 1908 to 1913, and various efforts to secularize modernize the empire in the Committee of Union and Progress's one party state from 19131918.
Sharia (; Arabic: شريعة, romanized: sharīʿa [ʃaˈriːʕa]) is a body of religious law that forms part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to God's immutable divine law and is contrasted with fiqh, which refers to its human scholarly interpretations. The manner of its application in modern times has been a subject of dispute between Muslims and Secularists.Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources of Sharia: the Quran, sunnah (authentic hadith), qiyas (analogical reasoning), and ijma (juridical consensus). Different legal schools—of which the most prominent are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafiʽi, and Hanbali—developed methodologies for deriving Sharia rulings from scriptural sources using a process known as ijtihad. Traditional jurisprudence (fiqh) distinguishes two principal branches of law, ʿibādāt (rituals) and muʿāmalāt (social relations), which together comprise a wide range of topics. Its rulings are concerned with ethical standards as much as with legal norms, assigning actions to one of five categories: mandatory, recommended, neutral, abhorred, and prohibited. Fiqh was elaborated over the centuries by legal opinions (fatwas) issued by qualified jurists (muftis) and historically applied in Sharia courts by ruler-appointed judges, complemented by various economic, criminal and administrative laws issued by Muslim rulers.In the modern era, traditional laws in the Muslim world have been widely replaced by statutes inspired by European models. Judicial procedures and legal education were likewise brought in line with European practice. While the constitutions of most Muslim-majority states contain references to Sharia, its rules are largely retained only in family law. The legislators who codified these laws sought to modernize them without abandoning their foundations in traditional jurisprudence. The Islamic revival of the late 20th century brought along calls by Islamism movements for full implementation of Sharia, including hudud corporal punishments, such as stoning. In some cases, this resulted in traditionalist legal reform, while other countries witnessed juridical reinterpretation of Sharia advocated by progressive reformers.In the 21st century, the role of Sharia has become an increasingly contested topic around the world. The introduction of Sharia-based laws has been cited as a cause of conflict in some African countries, such as Nigeria and Sudan, and some jurisdictions in North America have passed bans on use of Sharia, framed as restrictions on religious or foreign laws. There are ongoing debates as to whether Sharia is compatible with democracy, human rights, freedom of thought, women's rights, LGBT rights, and banking. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (ECtHR) ruled in several cases that Sharia is "incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy".