Main opposition leader Kılıçdaroğlu: The Prophet is my ancestor

Okan Konuralp ANKARA - Hürriyet

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has claimed that he is a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, speaking during an interview with daily Hürriyet.

“It is true, the family that I belong to descends from the family of the Prophet Muhammad. But we do not use this in politics," Kılıçdaroğlu said.

"There are many articles written on this topic. There is a family tree, given to my family during Ottoman times. It is kept by the family’s elders. This family tree document is kept by the Düzgün family in Tunceli. I photographed it years ago and gave it to academics who were researching the matter,” he added. 

The CHP head also said that in order to prevent fake claims being made, these documents were issued twice, with one copy given to the family while the other was kept in the Ottoman archives.

“One copy is at the Istanbul Office of the Mufti. [In the Ottoman period], every year, those who held this document would take it to the ‘kadı’ (Ottoman judge) and have it authenticated. This stopped with the declaration of the Republic. But anyway, in Tunceli, everybody knows that our family comes from the Prophet’s family,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. 

Meanwhile, speaking about a possible name change of his home province of Tunceli to the originally used "Dersim," he said local people should be given a choice.

“It is quite possible that Tunceli may be renamed to Dersim. Hopefully, there will be a referendum on it. The people of Tunceli should be asked which name they would prefer. If they agree to it [the name change], then there is no problem. As a matter of fact, they have already formed a sports club named 'Dersim.' If I was to participate in that referendum, I would vote for Dersim,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, adding that people from Tunceli already identify themselves as being “from Dersim.”