TÜRK DİYANET ÜZERİNDE 14 YILLIK ARAŞTIRMA TRENDLERİ: BİBLİYOMETRİK VE TEMATİK ANALİZLER

Diyanet is a Turkish government-affiliated religious authority. In recent times a surge of academic works has been seen on functions of Diyanet home and abroad. Although it was established to regulate the religious life of Turkish Muslims during the early republican period, it argues that during AK party rule, Diyanet emerged as the main tool of Erdogan's Islamization in Turkey. The main objective of this study is to explore the nature of research on Diyanet in the recent decade. The study implemented a bibliometric analysis and thematic analysis to map the literature on Diyanet using the Web of Science database. The study found most research on Diyanet was mostly published in Turkey. France, Australia, and the Netherlands also conducted significant research on Diyanet. Along with the religious issues, the other central theme of research were politics, democracy, Erdogan, Germany, etc. Research on Diyanet reveals six themes by thematic analysis. The major themes are that Diyanet is Turkey's soft power tool abroad, a promoter of the pious generation, empowers scarf-wearing women, and an alternative educational institute social change-maker. While several studies critically evaluated Diyanet and focused on how it has been utilized to legitimize Erdogan's authoritarian rule. The study concludes that academic interest in Diyanet has increased in recent years. Moreover, after the 15 July failed coup, a number of research were conducted to defame Diyanet globally.