Date posted: October 30, 2014

SERKAN SAĞLAM / ISTANBUL

Dr. Selim Kaptanoğlu, former Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) politician and former doctor of late iconic MHP leader Alparslan Türkeş, said on Tuesday that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has replaced the National Security Council (MGK) of the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup by amassing power.

Kaptanoğlu, a long-time deputy secretary-general of the MHP, also criticized Erdoğan’s effort to include the Hizmet movement, a grassroots religious and social movement, in the state’s so-called “red book,” which summarizes the threats against the state, saying such things took place during times of military coups to target the religious and nationalists in particular.

According to Kaptanoğlu, this is an attempt to include all political dissidents in the category of enemies. Should the MGK accept Erdoğan’s proposal to include the Hizmet movement to the list national threats, it will lose all credibility, Kaptanoğlu adds.

According to Kaptanoğlu, Erdoğan’s fight with Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen is personal. “What did the Gülen movement do? Are you going to call these people terrorists just because they went after thieves?”

Kaptanoğlu was dismissed from his position as a doctor in the military because he signed a report for Türkeş to be released from prison during the Sept. 12 military coup era. According to Kaptanoğlu, the era is now being repeated by means of a government that claims to be civilian and pious.

Referring to the excessive and repressive powers of the MGK in the post-1980 coup era, Kaptanoğlu says it is now Erdoğan who has taken over control of the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. According to Kaptanoğlu, the media affiliated with the Hizmet movement is now the only one resisting the pressure of the government.

“Unfortunately Turkish people always side with the powerful, not with the right,” Kaptanoğlu said.

Closing down Turkish schools ‘treason’

Stating that Turkish schools around the world are realizing the dream of the late Türkeş and nationalists in Turkey, Kaptanoğlu said the government’s attempt to close down these schools is a great treason and anti-patriotic.

According to Kaptanoğlu, prep schools and the dormitories of the Hizmet movement in southeastern Turkey were closed down due to the agreement in Oslo conducted between the government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) because the Hizmet movement is considered an obstacle to the terrorists.

Source: Today's Zaman , October 29, 2014

Tags: Defamation of Hizmet | Hizmet and politics | Turkey |