World press on headscarves controversy in Turkey (November 1, 2013)

Hürriyet Daily News published an article by Murat Yetkin headlined "Breaking taboos in the Turkish Parliament" and devoted to the ongoing headscarves controversy in Turkey.

"The Turkish Parliament broke one of its biggest taboos on Oct. 31 by welcoming four women wearing headscarves due to their Islamic beliefs. All four were members of Parliament in Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) list," the article begins. 

"The session yesterday, in which the four MPs declared that they would arrive covered, caused the political tension in country to escalate. There were fears that if there was to be a group resistance from the CHP there would be a massive AK Parti reaction to it, which could lead to deeper conflicts and cracks in the Turkish political scene," the author writes.

"It did not happen. The CHP group criticized the AK Parti for being hypocritical, saying they should remember freedoms not only when it is just part of the society, but it was all within the peaceful limits of parliamentary debate. Women deputies from all parties delivered powerful speeches, criticizing the male domination of Turkish politics, but when the historic session - exceeding another threshold for the normalization of political life in Turkey - concluded, it was a relief for everyone interested in the matter," the article reads. 

According to Murat Yetkin, the leader of the CHP, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu proved his leadership capacities on such an important and crucial matter with success, perhaps for the first time. "With silent maneuvering, he managed to take on the inner-party opposition, who asked him to take a strong stance against the use of headscarves in Parliament, and thus avoided a major conflict and damage to Turkish political life. With this move, Kılıçdaroğlu both avoided antagonism with the party's grassroots and sent positive signals to indeterminate votes as the country approaches the local elections on March 3, 2014," Yetkin writes.

Kılıçdaroğlu’s move helped both the Turkish Parliament and his own party, the author believes.