Speaker] Arinc are trampling the constitution with their statements, and are committing a crime.”
CHP Chairman Deniz Baykal underlined that Erdogan’s interpretation was against the principle of secularism and the constitution that secures this principle, and added that Erdogan’s words reflected a longing for a theocratic state.
Baykal further said: “These words should not have come out of the mouth of a prime minister of the democratic, secular Turkish Republic. That we should ask the ulema! What kind of mentality is that? What else should we ask the ulema? Should we consult them on having four wives [as permitted by Islam]? About the inheritance law? Maybe on women’s rights? And who shall we ask? The Shi’ite ulema in Iran? Or the Wahhabi ulema of Saudi Arabia?”
Not forgetting, of course, novelist Orhan Pamuk’s trial, for “insulting Turkishness”, due to start in Istanbul tomorrow:
The charges relate to a magazine interview in which Orhan Pamuk said 30,000 Kurds and one million Ottoman Armenians were killed in Turkey and no-one dares talk about it.
He could face up to three years in jail.
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