Presidency of Religious Affairs
Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs
The Presidency of Religious Affairs (Turkish: Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, commonly referred to as the Diyanet or DİB) is a state institution established in 1924 by the founding president of the Republic of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Initially created to manage religious duties which was previously overseen by the abolished Chiefdom of Islamic/Muslim Community (Shaykh al-Islām) before the establishment of the republic during the Ottoman Empire era, it later gained formal recognition under Article 136 of the Turkish constitution. The President of Religious Affairs effectively serves as the Grand Mufti of Turkey. This role is supported by a 16-member council elected from among clerics and university theology faculty.
As specified by law, the duties of the Diyanet are "to administer the affairs related to faith and worship of the religion of Islam".
The Diyanet drafts a weekly sermon delivered at the nation's 85,000 mosques and more than 2,000 mosques abroad that function under the directorate. It provides Quranic education for children and trains and employs all of Turkey's imams, who are considered civil servants.
Starting from 2006, the Diyanet was fortified, by 2015 its budget had increased four-fold, and staff doubled to nearly 150,000. Its 2019 budget has been estimated at €1.7 billion ($1.87 billion), far exceeding that of most Turkish government ministries. It has 1,000 branches across Turkey and offers educational, cultural and charitable activities in 145 countries.
“Presidency of Religious Affairs” enters the record as turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Presidency, Religious and Affairs can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1231793. VIAF identifies the subject as 156488353. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1924, 2006, 2015 and 2019.
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This entry incorporates text from “Presidency of Religious Affairs” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.