Criticisms and reactions are pouring in from family members and friends of moderate Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who has become a prime target of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's offensive language since the Dec. 17, 2013, corruption scandal that implicated members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and high-ranking officials close to the prime minister's inner circle.
After Gülen's relatives expressed their disappointment with the endless accusations and slander against the scholar in Erzurum earlier this month, another reaction came from İzmir, an Aegean province where some of Gülen's friends live.
After knowing Gülen for 50 years, Yusuf Pekmezci, Osman Özkara, Gürbüz Dönmez Paşa and Malik Ejder Eriş Eşrefpaşalı have said that the phrases used by Erdoğan are harsh, adding, “No one has done so much against Gülen in history.”
Instead of embracing the people in Turkey, the prime minister is leading a strategy of discrimination, as the language he has been using during the election campaign is what Gülen's friends describe as “shameful.”
“What the prime minister is doing does not suit a person who is from Kasımpaşa. What a shame,” Eşrefpaşalı said.
“An official should not insult his people. A brave person would never curse in the presence of women. Have people who had been good until recently become awful?” asked Pekmezci, criticizing Erdoğan's statement that he is the “representative of 76 million people.” Pekmezci says Erdoğan's offensive language does not represent Turkey.
“If you recognize God, if you have faith in God, if you are graduate of a religious vocational high school, you cannot strike such an attitude. If you are fond of God, close your mouth,” Pekmezci said, recommending that the prime minister clean his mind as well.
The corruption scandal and graft investigation that became public on Dec. 17 of last year has been portrayed by the government as a plot to unseat the prime minister, after which a smear campaign was launched that accused the Hizmet movement and Gülen of being behind the corruption allegations.
Published on Today's Zaman, 24 March 2014, Monday
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