The Turkish president thus replied to the leader of the main opposition party, Kemal Kilicdagllu, who had initially proposed a law to guarantee the right to carry the veil, especially in the public service, schools and universities.
Le Monde with AFP
Approaching the presidential and legislative elections planned in 2023, the debate on the wearing of the veil has recently ignited in Turkey. Latest act, Saturday October 22, with the proposal of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to organize a referendum on a constitutional change to guarantee the right to wear a veil in the public service, schools and universities.
a Muslim majority, but having inscribed secularism in its constitution, Turkey has long been a country where the wearing of the veil was prohibited in these three institutions. But the restrictions were lifted in 2013 by the government of Mr. Erdogan who often presents himself as the protector of Muslims against secular “elites”, suggesting that without him, “acquired” as the lifting of the restrictions of the port of the veil , will be endangered.
Unlike the 1990s, where wearing the veil caused bright debates, no political movement today offers its ban in Turkey. But Mr. Erdogan’s proposal aims not to be overwhelmed by his rivals on an important theme.
“Do you intend to imitate Orban?”
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition party CHP (Republican Party of the People, Social Democrat), proposed a law to guarantee the right to wear a veil. “We have had errors in the past about the veil … It’s time to leave behind this question,” launched, at the beginning of October, Mr. Kilicdagllu.
“If you have the courage, come, let us submit this to the referendum (…) that the nation make the decision”, thus replied, Saturday, Mr. Erdogan, during a television intervention.
In response to the Turkish president, Mr. Kilicdagllu rejected, in the evening, the idea of a referendum by reproaching him “to imitate” the Hungarian nationalist leader Victor Orban, who has become the icon of hard lines.
“Do you intend to imitate Orban, Erdogan? (…) Where do you leave the referendum? If you do not run away, this question will be resolved. Men will no longer be able to have their word on clothes des femmes. As-tu ce courage ? “, he tweeted .
anti-lgbt arrangement
Created by the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the CHP is known to be an ardent defender of secularism. But according to observers, Mr. Kilicdaroglu would have wanted to show conservative voters – traditionally voting for the AKP, the party of Mr. Erdogan – that they had nothing to fear in the event of a change of power.
In the text that Mr. Erdogan now proposes to submit to the referendum, there will also be an anti-LGBT provision, aimed at “strengthening the protection of the family”, he announced without giving more details.
“A strong family means a strong nation. (…) Can there be LGBT in a strong family? No,” he insisted. “As a representative of the will of the people, let’s protect our nation from the attacks of deviant and perverse currents,” he added.