Turkey’s major opposition party denounced yesterday Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s increasing references to religion and the Quran, warning that such policies would divide the nation, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
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.
Turkish opposition slams Erdoğan over religion rhetoric
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