Turkey Update – ‘Alevi’ Video & more – 25 April 2023

On Wednesday the 19th, Kılıçdaroğlu, the opposition candidate, shared a video titled ‘Alevi’, a branch of Islam that is local to the Anatolian region. However, it’s not officially recognized as a religion, but a cultural group in Turkey and most Alevis hide their identity in order to avoid discrimination. Kılıçdaroğlu also hadn’t mentioned his religious beliefs before the video. It wasn’t a secret, but he wasn’t openly discussing it either.

The video got almost thirty million views, becoming the most watched video on the platform. In the video, he talked about his Alevi roots, and the discrimination Alevis face. He said that people couldn’t choose their backgrounds, but they could choose to be good, and honest. He invited people to abolish this separatist system and create a free and wealthy country where people discuss their dreams and achievements instead of backgrounds and differences.

The public showed great support for the video. However, the ruling bloc harshly criticized Kılıçdaroğlu. The president told Kılıçdaroğlu that no one asked him about his religious sect, and no one targeted him for his religious views as well, undermining the discrimination Alevis face. He further said ‘We don’t have a religion called Alevi, Sunni or Shia’, all branches of Islam, and added that their only religious identity was ‘Islam’.

However, just last Friday the 21st, while Kılıçdaroğlu was saying the Fatiha prayer, an Islamic prayer, at the cemetery for the people who lost their lives in the Kahramanmaraş earthquake, a man from the crowd shouted at the imam, the islamic leader, saying that Kılıçdaroğlu didn’t know how to say the Fatiha, implying he isn’t a Muslim, and asked him why he’d let him recite the words. Many called this act a provocation. However, Kılıçdaroğlu said that a man with grief could say and do anything. He asked people to let the matter go and not to expose the man on social media. However, many people did expose him. Some found pictures of the man with senior government figures, and claimed that he joined the meeting at the cemetery with an agenda to defame Kılıçdaroğlu.

Let’s get back to Erdoğan for a moment…

While he was addressing Kılıçdaroğlu’s video, Erdoğan also accused the opposition of trying to destroy the country by ‘turning it into Syria’, referencing the clashes between religious sects. Many people found it ironic, as the ruling alliance was the one who let millions of Syrians in the country unmonitored.

Onto some news on diplomatic relations…

th of April,: 1915

Turkey’s foreign minister slammed Biden’s remarks on Twitter and called him a ‘charlatan’. He added that Biden’s statement was politically-driven, and that he was trying to distort history.

Moving on…

On Friday the 21st, Tolga Şardan, a journalist, wrote a story on allegations that the Police Academy Presidency and the Interior Ministry manipulated the oral interview results for police entrance exams. He wrote that the Police Academy marked the candidates’ interview results with a pencil, instead of a pen, so that Süleyman Soylu, the interior minister, can change the results depending on whether he approves of the person or not. The candidates have to pass the Public Personnel Placement Exam, and a physical fitness exam to qualify for the oral exam. The two exams amount to 50% of the total mark, and the oral exam makes up the other 50%. So, even if they get full scores from the other exams, if they can’t pass the oral interview, they fail.

As the election draws closer, the campaigns start to get more hostile. In hopes of getting conservative votes, President Erdoğan and Soylu, the interior minister, targeted the LGBTI+ community. On Saturday the 22nd, he said that the opposition parties the Republican People’s Party or CHP, the Workers’ Party of Turkey, and the Peoples’ Democratic Party were LGBT+ supporters and they were against the country’s sacred family structure. He added that on the 14th of May, the election day, the people would teach their lesson to those who support LGBTI+ and violence against women. Many criticized this separatist rhetoric and hate speech.

Pettiness in the election campaigns doesn’t end there. The ruling bloc and the opposition are also fighting over their campaign posters and where to hang them. On Wednesday the 19th, Canan Kaftancıoğlu, the main opposition CHP’s Istanbul provincial head, posted on social media a picture of Erdoğan’s election poster on the historical city walls of Istanbul. She tweeted that the walls belong to the Treasury and that the law forbids people from hanging up posters on it. To protest, on Saturday the 22nd, the CHP also hung up a poster of Kılıçdaroğlu, their presidential candidate. It also requested the district governor to take down the posters. On Monday the 24th, the governorate removed both of the posters.

Moreover, on Friday the 21st, Erdoğan said that if Kılıçdaroğlu comes to power, he will close down the Religious Affairs Directorate, the state-run religious authority in the country. As a response, Kılıçdaroğlu reminded people that his party, the CHP, established the Directorate in the early years of the country, and added that no one had the power to shut it down.

Some local news…

The İstanbul Municipality started demolishing illegal cafes on the coast of Üsküdar as a part of its urban transformation plan. However, the owners of the cafes protested against the demolition. An unknown armed person climbed on the roof of one of the cafes, and demanded workers stop the demolition. The police later detained him, and no one was injured.

The BirGün news outlet reported that the Interior Ministry is filling up its pepper spray stock to its fullest. In addition to that, a parliament member from the CHP also stated that the Gendarmerie General Command ordered its personnel to be on standby on election day. Some speculate that the government might be preparing for a civil unrest scenario.

Aaaand that’s it for this week. Remember you can buy our 100% unbleached organic cotton, grown and ginned in Texas, spun and knit in the Carolinas, sewn and printed in Missouri t-shirts. The most environmentally friendly t-shirt you’ll own. To get one, check the link in the show notes!

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