İlhan Cihaner Republican People’s Party (CHP) İstanbul deputy, talked about structures of religious sects and current orientation of the politics of Turkish bourgeoisie to soL news.
Cihaner is known with the legal investigation he started in 2007, when he was a government attorney, on the activities of İsmailağa religious sect.
“REACTIONARIES ACT LIKE THEY JUST REALIZED THIS IRRATIONALITY”
Cihaner argues that recent topics of Turkey should be evaluated by taking into account the developments in the last few years. He says that “after the July 15 coup attempt, reactionaries started to act as if they have just realized that the sermons of US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen are irrational and even ‘non-religious’. Other events like sexual abuse of children in Ensar Foundation and the fire in a dormitory of Süleymancı sect, which killed 12 people including 11 students, led to public discussions as if these developments are newly emerged”.
Cihaner emphasizes that these developments have made it possible to see the truth for some people. Conservative people started to criticize other irrational statements or actions of religious figures, known to be close to Gülen. However, Cihaner says, there are still many other irrational religious figures and sects, and conservatives, and especially AKP elites, “praise them to the skies”.
“MONEY COLLECTED BY RELIGIOUS SECTS GOES TO THEIR PERSONAL LUXURY EXPENSES”
In 2007, İlhan Cihaner started a legal investigation after discovering that some religious groups were providing education to poor children in illegal institutions. It was also found out that these groups were collecting money from poor people in the name of “aid for Palestine” or “aid for the courses teaching the Quran”.
The money collected, says Cihaner, was used by the groups’ leaders for their personal luxury spendings, villas in İstanbul or business transactions.
“What is more dangerous today”, adds Cihaner, “is that ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) cihadists, salafis are now finding a proper environment, which has been created by those religious groups, for themselves”.
“Just think that ISIS sympathizers constituted the 8 per cent of the population in Turkey a few years ago. This is a terrifying number. I think today the number is higher. AKP knows that once they stop, they will harshly fall down and that is why they are trying to hold up any structure they can consolidate”.
“THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING TO PEOPLE”
Cihaner thinks that there is an opportunity for the public discussions to be led to show the truth. “For instance”, he says, “the children killed in the fire of the dormitory are the children of the poor. This is important. We have to start with the question if any children of the AKP elites, or even of this particular sect, went to these uncontrolled dormitories. The answer to this question leads us to class perspective. We have to start from here.”
“PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM WILL DESTROY AKP, TOO”
About the recent agenda in the Turkish parliament, Cihaner thinks that there is more to the constitutional amendment discussion than that it is antidemocratic. “This kind of a change”, he argues, “will not only affect opposition parties”.
“It is true that a regular presidential system also does not allow more than two parties. But if concentration of power is more than the regular system, then there is no room for political parties as we know”.
Cihaner adds that “the political, economic and social lives will all be concentrated to the palace. The one that will be affected by this the most is actually AKP itself. AKP, as a political party and political organization will no longer have any value”.
Cihaner thinks that this amendment will not be accepted, but if it does “power will be concentrated in the palace. And we know how things work in the palace. He [Erdoğan] will work with his advisors who have little or no representational power”.
