Tension grows over CHP’s chador act
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Hurriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 12, 2008 00:00
ANKARA - The main opposition party’s initiative to allow black chador wearing women to join the party triggered tension between the party and Turkey’s nationalist opposition party.
Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, criticized the main opposition party leader, Deniz Baykal, for contributing to the U.S.-sponsored project to turn Turkey into a "moderate Islamic" state through its recent initiative, speaking during the Kurban Bayramı (Feast of Sacrifice) celebrations held in the party building Tuesday.
Bahçeli said the two issues, namely the global financial crisis and the Republican People’s Party, or CHP’s, black chador initiative, dominated Turkey’s political agenda recently. "As will be remembered, the U.S.-led Broader Middle East Initiative envisaged a moderate Islam country of Turkey by reshaping its political life over the last 10 years and the Justice and Development Party [or AKP] constituted the right leg of this initiative," Bahçeli said.
Move should satisfy all secularists
"Is there now a plan to form the left leg of the project? Is there a transformation from the Anatolian left into a social democrat political formation that welcomes the black chador?"
A harsh reaction came from CHP leader, Baykal, who responding in a written statement said it was the MHP who voted in favor of the AKP-sponsored constitutional amendment permiting headscarves in universities.
"If the invitation asking for others to show respect to people to choose their clothing freely in their private lives as well as the refusal of clothing as a means of political stigmatization means moderate Islam, then what does the meaning of approving a constitutional amendment that permits the headscarf, a religious political symbol, in the public sphere?" read the statement.
"Does it signify a religious abuse which isn’t moderate Islam or a tradition of laying a political ambush?
Baykal said it was the matter of basic rights and freedoms to ask for respect for those who were involved in party politics, whatever clothing they wore. The moderate Islam project was not a religious project but a political one.
"Some of the covered people’s engagement with a political party that supports a secular republic should gratify all who believe in a secular republic. Those, however, who aren’t satisfied with such a move are coming from a tradition of lying as a political ambush," Baykal noted. Meanwhile, Bahçeli yesterday criticized Baykal’s words, saying the CHP abused the headscarf and owed an answer to its supporters.
Bahçeli said the two issues, namely the global financial crisis and the Republican People’s Party, or CHP’s, black chador initiative, dominated Turkey’s political agenda recently. "As will be remembered, the U.S.-led Broader Middle East Initiative envisaged a moderate Islam country of Turkey by reshaping its political life over the last 10 years and the Justice and Development Party [or AKP] constituted the right leg of this initiative," Bahçeli said.
Move should satisfy all secularists
"Is there now a plan to form the left leg of the project? Is there a transformation from the Anatolian left into a social democrat political formation that welcomes the black chador?"
A harsh reaction came from CHP leader, Baykal, who responding in a written statement said it was the MHP who voted in favor of the AKP-sponsored constitutional amendment permiting headscarves in universities.
"If the invitation asking for others to show respect to people to choose their clothing freely in their private lives as well as the refusal of clothing as a means of political stigmatization means moderate Islam, then what does the meaning of approving a constitutional amendment that permits the headscarf, a religious political symbol, in the public sphere?" read the statement.
"Does it signify a religious abuse which isn’t moderate Islam or a tradition of laying a political ambush?
Baykal said it was the matter of basic rights and freedoms to ask for respect for those who were involved in party politics, whatever clothing they wore. The moderate Islam project was not a religious project but a political one.
"Some of the covered people’s engagement with a political party that supports a secular republic should gratify all who believe in a secular republic. Those, however, who aren’t satisfied with such a move are coming from a tradition of lying as a political ambush," Baykal noted. Meanwhile, Bahçeli yesterday criticized Baykal’s words, saying the CHP abused the headscarf and owed an answer to its supporters.