 |
PM Erdoğan calls on parties to settle headscarf issue after referendum
“Our stance on the headscarf issue is clear. I do not think that the Nationalist Movement Party [MHP] has changed its stance either. If the Republican People's Party [CHP] is also in favor of a solution, this would make us happy and there is no need to wait more. We can solve this after Sept. 12,” the prime minister said on a television program on Sunday. Wearing headscarves has remained one of Turkey's most contentious issues. Headscarves were banned on university campuses in the late 1990s by a Constitutional Court ruling which said the scarf violated the nation's secular principles because the headscarf was seen as a political and religious symbol. Political parties have thus far failed to provide a solution that satisfies everyone.
CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu brought the headscarf issue to the agenda last week during a rally and pledged to solve the issue if his party came to power. “I promise that the CHP will allow the wearing of the headscarf. The prime minister will see. He could not manage it, but we will,” the CHP leader vowed.
In early February 2008, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) with the support of the opposition MHP passed a constitutional amendment that would have lifted the ban on the wearing of headscarves on university campuses. However, upon an appeal by the staunchly secular CHP and its ally, the Democratic Left Party (DSP), the Constitutional Court ruled that Parliament had violated the constitutionally enshrined principle of secularism and annulled the amendment. Because the CHP was the party that took the 2008 constitutional amendment to the Constitutional Court for annulment, and because its leader Kılıçdaroğlu has previously backtracked on similar pledges, some analysts doubt whether Kılıçdaroğlu is sincere in his remarks.
Indeed, Kılıçdaroğlu’s latest headscarf move was not his first. In a Radikal daily interview in July he said his party would solve the headscarf problem at universities, if elected to power. “We can solve that issue, and we are determined to solve it. … Everyone will be able to attend university,” he said. However, following reactions from his own party, Kılıçdaroğlu issued a statement denying the Radikal report.
“When the interview is examined, it will be seen that I did not say students who wear a headscarf will go to the universities as they are,” he said in the statement, leaving it vague as to what he meant by solving the problem. In his statement, Kılıçdaroğlu also referred to an earlier Constitutional Court decision which overruled a parliamentary bill supported by 411 of 550 deputies that allowed headscarves on campuses.
Prime Minister Erdoğan also criticized recent remarks by CHP Party Council member Professor Sencer Ayata, who said it is not necessary for a headscarf to cover all of a person’s hair, a clue to the CHP’s solution. “An approach saying ‘you should tie your scarf that way’ is not correct. Is anybody telling other university students to dress in a certain way? Is anybody imposing criteria on them?” Erdoğan asked.
Turkey was recently criticized by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) due to the headscarf ban.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BÜLENT KENEŞ |  |
||
| What befell Niyazi-i Misri in the past is happening to Fethullah Gülen now | |||
| EKREM DUMANLI |  |
||
| When a call for fairness and reason finds acceptance | |||
| ŞAHİN ALPAY |  |
||
| Uludere, test case for democracy in Turkey | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Are the Kurds mentally divorced from Turkey? | |||
| GÖKHAN BACIK |  |
||
| Erdoğan, Gül and Davutoğlu: the inner bargain on Turkish foreign policy | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| Taking lessons from previous experiences with the military | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| Qualm | |||
| ÖMER TAŞPINAR |  |
||
| A new phase in Syria? | |||
| İHSAN DAĞI |  |
||
| Turkish foreign policy: Time for a re-evaluation | |||
| SEYFETTİN GÜRSEL |  |
||
| Poor-friendly economic growth and the AK Party | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| Missing women, missing opportunities | |||
| BERK ÇEKTİR |  |
||
| Changes to incentives for investment in Turkey | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| The 1960 coup: a final test for democracy | |||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Ukraine: a lost country | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The 52nd anniversary of May 27 | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
