Applicants affiliated with CHP, Hizmet movement face discrimination

Following the tension between the government and the Hizmet movement -- inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen -- the government has based its recruitment policy on “color lists” to avoid employing people affiliated with some groups such as the Hizmet movement and the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) in the public sector, a Turkish daily claimed on Monday.

“In the new system, members of the Hizmet movement, sympathizers of the CHP, those who took part in Gezi Park demonstrations and Kurds are placed in the red list,” according to a report in the daily Taraf.

The names of those applicants who should not be granted employment are put in the red list, while blue and green lists contain names of approved candidates, the report maintains. “In particular, blue lists are made up of those candidates who may be part of the core of the [Justice and Development Party] AKP. Those closely affiliated with the AKP and those who were “brought up” by the National Youth Foundation [MGV] are put in this list,” the daily said.

Tensions between the government and the Hizmet movement were exacerbated after the government announced that it would take steps to transform prep schools -- no small number of which are operated by the movement -- which would ensure that a great majority of prep schools in Turkey to be closed down.

Public sector employees are selected following a two-stage process. In the first stage, candidates sit for the Public Personnel Selection Examination (KPSS), and those who pass are invited to attend an oral examination.

“In oral exams, references [a candidate would provide] are influential [in assuring the candidate employment]. In past years, lists [containing names of those candidates to be offered employment in a given public institution] used to be provided by the Office of the Prime Minister, the AK Party headquarters and the ministries. The Gezi Park demonstrations and tensions [between the government and] the Hizmet movement has caused the way the lists [are being prepared] to be changed,” the daily said.

According to the new method adopted, candidates who apply to work in the public sector are categorized as red, green and blue in an effort to avoid protests from the public. Alleging that these lists are handed out to members of the exam commission, the report said: “For example, 300 applicants are invited for an interview for 100 inspector positions. Out of the 300 people, 100 candidates are listed on the green list, 50 are on the blue and 150 on the red list. Members of the commission give points to candidates based on the color of the list.”

“Those whose name appears in the red list have no chance of being offered employment in the public sector,” the report said. Claiming that members of the exam commission give bad marks to those who they want to eliminate, the report said that “he blue list is composed of those people who are devoted to the AKP and Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan.” People who will serve in critical positions are selected from this list.

The green list contains those who are not politically engaged and whose employment would not pose any inconvenience, according to the report.

The report maintained that such a practice, described as “cloaked profiling,” has already been employed in the selection of candidates for many public institutions, including in the Tax Inspection Board which is subordinated to the Ministry of Finance. “The Tax Inspection Board is alleged to have made use of color lists in the recruitment of inspectors employed in the last quarter of the previous year,” said the report, which further alleged that in the Ministry of Finance, it is said that a lot of applicants who got good grades at the exam were eliminated from the application process since their names appeared on the red list.

Published on Today's Zaman, 17 February 2014, Monday