Their hatred for Islam never ends… The CHP’s anti-Islamic messages in the last 2 years!
The February 28 mentality is being brought back to the stage. Actions and discourses targeting religious values began to escalate. Especially after the 2019 elections, the events reflected in the statements of the politicians and the streets revealed that that mind has never changed. The flare was thrown with the despicable words of İBB Deputy Secretary General Yeşim Meltem Şişli towards the headscarved people. Then, Islamic foundations, associations, NGOs and educational institutions were blacked out. CHP Fikri Sağlar and Barış Yarkadaş vomited a grudge against the headscarved judges. Fatma Gulham Abushanab, who was the translator of the Erdogan-Biden meeting, was targeted. The disgrace in the 99th anniversary celebrations in Balıkesir was the last show of the bigoted head.
When Turkey said that the dark times were behind, the February 28 mentality was brought back to the stage. The actions and discourses targeting conservative people have come to light recently. The toxic climate started to peak again after the 2019 elections.
You’ll sweat and smell bad!
The first of the CHP’s anti-Islamic actions in the new period came from İBB/IMM (Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality) Deputy Secretary General Yeşim Meltem Şişli. Şişli insulted the headscarved executives working at İSMEK in January 2020. Şişli told 20 female regional managers, “How many of you are single, raise your hand. What the hell, they’re almost all single. If you could bring them together with the firefighters in the evening, sir. In this heat, your head is covered, what are you doing, you are sweating and you smell…”
Islamic NGOs are target
Then, just as in the February 28 period, Islamic foundations, associations, non-governmental organizations and educational institutions were targeted. The aid, grants and leases made by municipalities to these NGOs serving the public interest were portrayed as ‘corruption’ and these organizations were tried to be discredited.
The headscarf is not a judge
According to Yeni Şafak daily newspaper; The CHP, by giving the message “We have changed” before each election, displaying the headscarved women and wearing badges to the women in chadors, initiated hate speech.
Former CHP minister and deputy Fikri Sağlar expressed his discomfort with a headscarved judge as follows: “The turban is the uniform of those who want sharia in reactionary activities, the headscarf has been a traditional dress in Anatolia for centuries, there is a difference. I want to say for myself, when I go before a judge wearing a headscarf when I am on trial, I have my doubts that he will protect my rights and do justice to me.”
Just like Fikri Sağlar, CHP ex-MP Barış Yarkadaş felt uncomfortable with this situation and said, “It is not right for a judge to be wearing a headscarf. This does not happen anywhere else in the world,” he said.
“You’re wearing a headscarf, I can’t trust you”
İsmail Hakkı Temel, a member of the CHP City Council in Istanbul, also attacked the headscarved health worker who was doing a coronavirus test, saying, “How can I trust and open my mouth when you have this thing on your head, if you poison me“. CHP Group Deputy Chairman Engin Özkoç attacked AK Party Deputy Özlem Zengin with a tone reminiscent of Bülent Ecevit’s “Tell this woman her place” rhetoric used for Merve Kavakçı. Engin Özkoç attacked Zengin, for whom he used the expression ‘hook‘ in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, by saying, “Give this woman her place.”
Mosques and Quran on target
Hostility did not end with veiling only. CHP Istanbul Deputy İbrahim Kaboğlu opposed the construction of Hagia Sophia and said, “Hagia Sophia should be preserved as a museum and even the Blue Mosque should be a museum because these are the common heritage of humanity.” These attacks have increased in recent days.
CHP İzmir Deputy Kani Beko opposed reading and keeping the Quran in the Parliament. Claiming that this situation is against secularism, Beko said, “Parliament is not the place to read the Quran.”
We witnessed a similar statement at the opening ceremony of the Supreme Court building. Head of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş’s prayer by attending the ceremony caused discomfort in the CHP and its supporters. CHP deputies and the media close to them started a secularism debate and targeted Erbaş.
Vampire comprison to headscarved people
Fatma Gülham Abusahanab, daughter of one of the symbols of February 28, Merve Kavakcı, served as a translator during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s meeting with US President Joe Biden at the NATO Summit held in Brussels. The fact that Kavakcı’s daughter works as a translator disturbed CHP’s Özgür Özel. Showing her hatred for the headscarf, Özel declared Kavakcı an ‘enemy of the regime’ and almost vomited a grudge with the words, “One feels as if they are taking revenge on the Republic by making the country’s blood suck like vampires by bringing names of symbols to critical positions“.
Özcan’s sluggishness
Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan was also one of the names who showed disrespect over the headscarf. In a program he attended, Özcan stated that a woman wearing a hijab came to him in Bolu and said, “We are making an opening, I am in a hurry in Bolu. A veiled lady came. He said, ‘Mr. Tanju, can we talk about something?’ I said, ‘I have to return to Ankara immediately. If it’s not private, can you talk here?’ I said. ‘No problem,’ he said. ‘I don’t have a baby. Can you help me?’ I said, ‘Ma’am, how can I help you? It turned out that the woman wanted to have IVF treatment…” Özcan, who was laughing about what he had been through, made disgusting innuendos.
Racist discussions at CHP… Water is more expensive for foreigners!
They could not digest
Müberra Öztürk, the first veiled student of the Turkish Military Academy, received her diploma from the Chief of General Staff, General Yaşar Güler, while completing her school as the 5th. Families who were not taken to the swearing-in ceremony because they were wearing headscarves for a while could not hold back their tears at this picture. These images also disturbed some circles. The first to express this discomfort was Sözcü newspaper – Writer Emin Çölaşan: “He went to the diploma ceremony with a turban on his head. She gave her diploma to the Chief of the General Staff. From now on, every soldier he will be assigned to will work with his cover, his hair will never be seen in case it is a sin. Maybe for this reason, he will be paved and promoted to general when the time comes.”
They insulted the headscarf
The ceremony organized by the CHP Edremit Municipality on the 99th anniversary of the liberation of Balıkesir’s Edremit district from the enemy occupation was the last event to overflow. At the ceremony, a performance was played under the leadership of the Association for Supporting Contemporary Life. In the event, which depicts the so-called backwardness, the citizens reacted to the representation, which was completed with the tying of a young girl covered with a black sheet, and then the ephemeral unchaining the chain and opening the veil and the woman’s ‘liberation’.
Attacks increased
It was not only CHP members who took actions reminiscent of February 28. Many women in Izmir, Adana and Istanbul were attacked simply because they were wearing headscarves. The Istanbul Bar Association sent a warning letter to the woman lawyer who attended the seminar with a headscarf. Teachers wearing headscarves giving lectures on EBA TV were opposed by saying, “Teachers wearing headscarves cannot be shown as role models for students“.
Actress Cihat Tamer, speaking at Ferhan Şensoy’s funeral, went beyond the limits and attacked religious people: “This country has been ruled by religion-dependent governments for 70 years. But despite that, we have been doing theater out of spite for 70 years.”
