The conflict erupted after the MHP’s Osman Durmuş said: “How dare you not allow the wife of a prime minister, who is accepted as a prophet, to enter GATA? Who do you think you are?” This was a reference to the remarks of the AK Party’s provincial chairman in Aydın, İsmail Hakkı Eser, who had said, “We are so loyal to our prime minister and AK Party leader Erdoğan that he is a second prophet for us.” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lashed out at the MHP deputy in Parliament and accused him of seeking both to garner votes over the issue of covered women and defending those who refused his wife entry to GATA. He also hinted that they had been through similar bitter experiences in the past, saying they could do nothing. However, the prime minister declined to go into details on the grounds that the country would not be able to bear the burden.“If the wife of a country’s prime minister cannot pay a visit to an actor [Nejat Uygur] at a military hospital just because of the way she dresses, there must be an ‘illness’ in that country. In addition, this was very rude behavior. The prime minister was forced to see his wife in tears. I imagine that many men in this country would also be depressed at the sight of their wife’s tears. Who has such a right? Who, on which grounds, can make these people suffer? This tyranny should be ended,” says Ahmet Altan from the Taraf daily. Stating that he understands how upset Erdoğan was to see his wife cry, he says that for what it’s worth, he is always on the side of the prime minister and his wife.
Fikret Bila from the Milliyet daily also supported Erdoğan’s reaction to his spouse being a matter of debate in Parliament and her being denied entry by GATA. “The prophet metaphor is, of course, wrong. Additionally, politicizing [the treatment of] politicians’ wives is also the wrong attitude. That’s why Durmuş’s remarks cannot be approved. Likewise, GATA’s refusal to allow the prime minister’s wife into the hospital because of her headscarf is not an attitude that can be approved of either in terms of humanist ethics or rules of courtesy,” Bila says.
The unfortunate GATA incident, which took place three years ago when Emine Erdoğan wanted to visit ailing thespian Uygur and which was made public by the prime minister last Sunday, is a source of shame for Turkey, Bugün’s Erhan Başyurt says. Stating that it exposes Turkey’s deficiencies in democracy, he says the appointed military bureaucracy had told the elected prime minister, “If your wife visits, tension will rise.” “What kind of tension is this? A strict headscarf ban brought about by the Feb. 28, 1997 postmodern coup has caused a confrontation between the public’s beliefs and the military,” Başyurt notes.
