Non-Muslims, the headscarf and the Gordian knot
by
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ

If we had the same population structure today, no one would dare discuss whether Turkey belongs to Europe, and Turkey would be in a position to give lessons on multiculturalism to the rest of the world.

With this kind of heterogeneous population structure, one other thing is for sure: We would not be discussing whether Turkey is becoming too religious, if Turkey will be a religious state one day and so on.

The key to understanding Turkey is this. The masterminds of these massacres, pogroms and lynching campaigns against non-Muslims and the people who engage in fear mongering concerning “Shariah” or an “Islamic state” and so on come from the same political tradition. One is the other’s predecessor. They once decided to homogenize Turkey by scaring away non-Muslims, and today they are fighting against devout Muslims in Turkey.

Just look at who fiercely opposes the reopening of the Halki seminary, who fights against easing the grievances of non-Muslim foundations, who is scared to death of the possibility of using the title of “ecumenical patriarch” and who defends the status quo in Cyprus. If you do this, you’ll see that these are the same exact people who are against university students wearing the headscarf and those who advocate the suppression of Muslims in the name of making Turkey a “modern” country.

Déjà vu

We have once again found ourselves discussing the headscarf problem. In 2007 the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) was almost closed by the Constitutional Court simply because it had attempted to make it permissible for women to wear a headscarf on university campuses. We are now again discussing the freedom to wear the headscarf at universities and elsewhere, and the chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals is once again threatening the AK Party with closure.

The composition of the Constitutional Court has been changed and, from a technical point of view, it may not be possible to close the AK Party. However, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party have once again fallen into the same trap: They appear to be trying to solve a problem that only concerns them. They are now again being presented as a political party that has shown its “real intentions” now that it has gained the political power it needed after a recent referendum. It once again appears as if Turkey’s “modern people” are simply trying to fight against religious conservatism.

Freedoms cannot be separated

The headscarf problem is a very serious problem of this country and should be solved as soon as possible. The majority of women cover their heads in Turkey, and banning them from entry to university or from public employment is not only a flagrant violation of freedom of conscience but also a humiliating form of discrimination on the basis of gender.

This ban has been imposed because the “social engineers” of Turkey wanted to impose it. They want to ban the headscarf, they want to repress non-Muslims and they want Kurds to live without their identity being recognized. You cannot fight against this strong tradition effectively unless you have a holistic approach to rights and freedoms.

Erdoğan wants to solve the headscarf problem immediately, but he has shown no intention of solving the problems of Alevis and non-Muslims. He wants Turks to have language rights in Germany but denies the same rights to Kurds in Turkey.

What Erdoğan and the AK Party do not understand is that the problem that they want to solve and all other “identity” problems were created by the same mentality in this country. And to solve any one of these problems in an effective and sustainable manner, you should try to solve all these problems in one go.

The state wanted to create an ideal citizen by denying all differences; you cannot solve this Gordian knot if you do not cut it at once by freeing everyone in this country.