Who will Hizmet support in local elections?

Mahir Zeynalov

It is no secret that the Hizmet movement supported the democratic actions of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) up until 2011 and only slightly criticized the government's anti-democratic actions such as its infamous intelligence law, match-fixing law and proposal to shift to a presidential system that effectively blocked the constitution-writing process.

Since the Gezi Park protests, the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has taken a hawkish political line in crushing dissent while significantly restricting media freedom and endorsing a series of regulations that are deeply anti-democratic and constitute a blatant violation of the Turkish Constitution.

Except the Hizmet movement, only a few less-powerful political and social movements have stood firm to deny the government what it wants: more power at the expense of democracy. Hizmet's honorable stance against the government's expansive policies was interpreted as a power struggle between the two former allies. The description is incorrect because the Hizmet movement has never had a desire to acquire political power and it has only supported democratic steps taken by various governments since the 1970s. At the moment, no political party or social movement can challenge the Hizmet movement in terms of its ability to stage campaigns and organize effectively. If the Hizmet movement had a hidden political agenda, it would have established a political party in the past 40 years and run for office. What makes the Hizmet movement powerful is its desire to stay out of politics as a whole body or seek political posts.

The incumbent government has maintained its unchallenged power by constantly portraying itself as a “victim.” It has quite skillfully exploited religious sensitivities of oppressed pious Muslims for more popularity since 2011. But this period was also a triumphant moment for Erdoğan and he remained the most powerful and popular actor in Turkey's political scene. To cover up the government's wrongdoings, Erdoğan thought the best strategy would be blaming the Hizmet movement for being behind what he calls a “plot” against his government “in accomplice with global actors.”

When the “enemies” of Erdoğan, a leader who always gained more popularity by describing his government and electorate as a victim, had been subdued, he designated the Hizmet movement as a new punching bag.

The Hizmet movement is composed of people with different political backgrounds and it is likely that they will vote for mostly conservative parties or candidates, but hardly for the ruling AKP. The local elections are in fact a race of not only several political parties but thousands of quite different candidates. Hizmet has never designated a party or a political bloc to vote for and it never will. As citizens of this country, everyone who sympathizes with the Hizmet movement will go to polls and vote for a candidate she or he believes is the right one for the post.

Don't hold your breath; Hizmet won't come out and endorse a political party. This is what makes this movement unique.

Published on Sunday's Zaman, 12 January 2014, Sunday