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Opposition In Turkey Lashes Out At Erdogan and AKP Government

http://www.thememriblog.org/turkey/blog ... n/4645.htm

Opposition parties strongly criticized Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday for his statements in Spain about “lifting the ban on the Islamic headscarf even if it is worn as a political symbol.”

Leader of the main opposition party (CHP) Deniz Baykal said that Erdogan’s statement is a confession of how AKP really sees the turban issue. He said, “The PM used to deny that it is a political symbol. And now he says 'so what if it is a political symbol?' Using religion for political purposes is a crime and letting religious symbols to take part in political life cannot be tolerated in a secular and democratic country”.

Baykal accused Erdogan for being over-confident because of the 47% of the votes that AKP received; for eroding the secular system; for creating a chaos of concepts and dragging Turkey to a dangerous place, adding “God help Turkey”. Baykal said, “The PM thinks there is nobody to tell him that enough is enough, but democracy will certainly face him.”

Leader of the nationalist MHP Party, Devlet Bahceli, also responded with strong criticism yesterday to PM Erdogan because of his habit of making controversial comments always when he is out of Turkey and accused the Prime Minister for "dynamiting the chances for reaching societal compromise and concensus in Turkey on the turban issue”. Bahceli said that this shows the extent to which the turban issue is being exploited by the AKP.

Chairman of center-left DSP Zeki Sezer said, “With his statement the prime minister has shown his hidden agenda. The ladies that cover their heads and those that don’t are all our women. Let the PM take his hands off our people’s religion, faith and the headscarf”.

The newly elected chairman of the center-right DP Suleyman Soylu said, “The issue of turban ban in universities must be resolved, but Turkey must not move away from secularism, not even a millimeter”.

Source: Hurriyet, Sabah, Turkish Daily News, January 16, 2008

Posted at: 2008-01-17