Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is accusing other segments of society of undermining the state, but in fact he is the one who is distorting the state system, according to Burdur independent deputy Hasan Hami Yıldırım.
Yıldırım, speaking at a press conference he called at the Parliament building on Tuesday, noted that the prime minister has been targeting the Hizmet movement, calling it a “parallel structure,” for not being loyal to him. “If there is a parallel structure, we should look at what the government party has done since the Dec. 17 and Dec. 25 bribery and corruption operations,” Yıldırım said, referring to the massive purges in the police force and the judiciary undertaken by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) following two anti-corruption operations implicating members of the government.
“You might not like a segment of society; they might not obey you. As far as I know, this is a democratic country. It is wrong, shameful, sinful and heartless to label segments you don't like 'the parallel structure' in an attempt to cover up other parallel structures. Being the prime minister doesn't give one the right to insult others,” he continued.
Yıldırım made it clear that he is not a member of the Hizmet movement. “I am not on anybody's side. Many deputies of the government party know my past. But I should say openly that I haven't been on the side of the government party openly since the [closure of] the preparatory schools and the Dec. 17 graft investigation. I am not a member of this [Hizmet movement], I have never worked in any of its institutions, I am not someone who was raised inside the movement. But I know Mr. Fethullah Gülen from his works, and I have always appreciated him. I have seen what's been done in Turkey and across the world; this is my opinion. I think he is somebody who should be appreciated. You might not be a supporter, you might not like him, but this doesn't give you the right to insult a respected scholar.”
Published on Today's Zaman, 13 May 2014, Tuesday
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