‘No indication Hizmet movement involved in politics’

During an interview, CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu responded to a question about the alleged role of religious communities in Turkey.

Asked whether the Hizmet movement, inspired by the teachings of internationally renowned scholar and intellectual Fethullah Gülen, can be considered an actor in Turkish politics, Kılıçdaroğlu said, “We have no data [information] in our possession to suggest that the movement is interfering in politics.”

The CHP leader’s claims have come to contradict his earlier claims that the Hizmet movement is an active actor in Turkish politics. “If we want unity in the real sense in this country, we should not involve religious beliefs and faiths in politics. Religious communities should not interfere in politics,” he added.

In the meantime, Muhammet Çakmak, a former member of the CHP’s Party Council, claimed that he was victim of a smear campaign ahead of the voting for new members of the council. He said a group of CHP members carried out the smear campaign against him, claiming that he was a “religious fundamentalist.”

Çakmak, a theologian, was included in Kılıçdaroğlu’s list of candidates for the Party Council, but he was not elected by the party’s delegates. “Some people carried out a huge operation against me. They carried out a campaign against me. They told delegates not to vote for me saying I am a religious fundamentalist and a follower of Gülen,” Çakmak claimed, but did not elaborate on who carried out the campaign against him

Excerpted from the news article published on Today's Zaman, 20 June 2012, Friday

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