Turkish opposition slams PM Erdoğan over religion rhetoric

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Deputy group chair of the Republican People’s Party, Akif Hamzaçebi says PM Erdoğan’s increasing references to religion and the Quran would divide the nation. AA photo

Turkey’s main opposition yesterday denounced Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s increasing references to religion and the Quran, warning that such policies would divide the nation.

The marking of Alevi homes in several towns is the result of Erdoğan’s religion-based politics, the deputy group chair of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Akif Hamzaçebi told reporters. 

The prime minister is “pointing to the Quran as a solution. Ever since the education bill, he won’t stop talking about the Quran,” he said, referring to the controversial legislation that introduced Quranic studies as an elective course in secondary and high schools.

Erdoğan is “polarizing society on the basis of moral values, religion and faith,” Hamzaçebi said. “If you break down a nation’s culture and take out only religion as a means of uniting the people, you will in fact divide the people. The prime minister is trying to re-blend the ingredients that make up the nation.” 

Erdoğan has hailed the introduction of Quranic courses as a “magnificent” development and compared its significance to the restoration of the Arabic call to prayer in 1950.

Separately, the CHP yesterday submitted a motion calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the marking of the homes in İzmir, Gaziantep and Adıyaman to uncover the perpetrators and their motives.

Following the first incident in February, Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin had said the markings were the work of children. The marks however re-appeared afterward in other cities.