During a rally in Malatya, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday proposed a referendum to enshrine in the Constitution the right to wear the veil in public service – a right already acquired in practice for several years. However, it was not the Turkish president who revived the debate, but the leader of the opposition, who had proposed at the beginning of October to enshrine this same right in law. So many political maneuvers within eight months of the elections.
With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and possible rival of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the presidential election of June 2023, had thought to take the Turkish president by surprise by proposing to enshrine in law the freedom to wear the veil for officials.
The objective was to reassure conservative voters, some of whom fear that the prohibitions that once weighed on the veil will reappear immediately in the event of a victory for the opposition. These bans have all been lifted one after the other over the past fifteen years by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s party, the AKP.
Far from feeling trapped, the Turkish head of state went further, addressing Kemal Kiliçdaroglu: “ If you have the courage, come, let us submit this question to the referendum (…) Let the nation decide! We will enter the “Century of Turkey”, the name of a new era where this kind of debates will henceforth be outdated. »
And the reform would not stop at the issue of the veil: the government wishes to take advantage of this to include in the Constitution a formula which would make any legalization of homosexual marriage impossible.
Defense of the veil and “fight against homosexuality”: two favorite themes of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which allow him to play on the polarization of Turkish society. An effective electoral recipe for him.