|
PM Erdogan Continues To Target Turkey’s Top Prosecutor, Puts Judiciary And The People Against One Another
AKP leadership is on a campaign against Turkey's Chief Prosecutor, presenting the judiciary as the enemy of the people and of democracy. PM Erdogan spoke to crowds in AKP conventions in Sanliurfa and Mardin today and continued to say that the judiciary’s initiative [to close down AKP] was in fact not against his party, but against the Turkish people that elected it. The PM repeated his earlier statements that these people would have to bear the consequences of their shameful attempts and that those who wound the people’s conscience and ignore its values and will, would not be able to escape the wrath of the people. He said, “Our people are more aware now. Our people know very well who these people are. They recognize the ones who think that the nation is worthless, and those who put roadblocks on the way to progress”. When the crowd began chanting slogans like “Break the hands that rise aginst the people”, Erdogan said, “We come from a civilization, from a culture, from a mentality of the likes of Yunus Emre, Mevlana, Haci Bektashi Veli [philosophers of Alevi Sufism)”. This time Erdogan quoted Yunus Emre’s lines about love and tolerance that characterizes the pluralistic and tolerant beliefs and traditions of Turkey’s Alevis that are discriminated by the Sunni establishment. In his speeches today Erdogan defended his party as being against extremism and violence and said that the distance between his party and fundamentalism and violence is the same as the distance between night and day, ground and sky, and lie and truth. He said, "We have committed ourselves to walk down this path. Allah willing there will be no going back". Source: Anatolian News Agency, Hurriyet, Milliyet, Vatan, Turkey, March 16, 2008
Posted at: 2008-03-16
| 
