EMRE KONGAR<\/span><\/p>\n Cumhuriyet columnist, ISTANBUL<\/span>–<\/p>\n The AKP government is taking very very important steps after the referendum, ahead of the election:<\/p>\n It is \u201ceducating\u201d the people parallel to the government\u2019s ideology and \u201corganizing them voluntarily(!)\u201d. By doing that, it is starting to put them under pressure.<\/p>\n It is spreading religious education throughout society\u2026<\/p>\n At the same time, they are forming pseudo civil society organizations that can be much more merciless and oppressing as they have no political responsibility. Their course of conduct is in unison with the official ideology but they carry no responsibility as they are inofficial.<\/p>\n This establishment, in other words, organizing the society by \u201cgiving the people special education\u201d and by \u201cforming voluntary pressure groups, which are in line with the government\u201d are widely used methods in all totalitarian regimes.<\/p>\n From Hitler Germany to Khomeini Iran such organizations are widespread. Especially with respect to ethics, safety and in the area of education, pressure groups with \u201csticks in their hands\u201d don\u2019t let society breathe.<\/p>\n *** I defended all politicians who were aggrieved, due to the oppressive regime of the September 12th period and its prohibitions, including the rights of the political Islamists.<\/p>\n At the panel discussion there was also Abdurrahman Dilipak.<\/p>\n I asked Dilipak the following question:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you become elected, will you bring out a law that forces women to wear a veil?\u201d<\/p>\n Dilipak answered boldly: \u201cNo, we won\u2019t bring out a law, the society will force them to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n I remarked on that that \u201cDilipak will stone us to death\u201d.<\/p>\n Dilipak laughed as he answered humorously: \u201cDon\u2019t worry, we like you, we won\u2019t do anything to you.\u201d<\/p>\n *** The first one is Director of Religious Affairs, Ali Bardakoglu\u2019s \u201cimams as public opion makers\u201d project:<\/p>\n \u201cWe started a project under the label religious service outside the mosque.<\/p>\n With this project we try to make people conceive that religious service isn\u2019t only praying or fasting, but that religion covers all parts of social life as well.<\/p>\n Our religious employee isn\u2019t a civil servant who only leads the prayers at the mosque.<\/p>\n He needs to be a public opinion maker that interferes in all parts of society\u2019s social life.\u201d<\/p>\n It seems as if the Department of Religious Affairs wants the imams to educate the people on subjects aside from their religious duties and shape all social life.<\/p>\n *** Kavaf was reported to have said that RTUK, the Radio and Television Supreme Council\u2019s punitive power was ineffective due to its long duration of punishment and that not everything could be solved by laws:<\/p>\n \u201cWe are thinking about forming a mechanism that is formed of civil initiatives, which will have their own method of sanctioning broadcasters and publishers. Those will feel the pressure when they ignore public sensitivities and display certain movie images, which offend society\u2019s rules of general ethics, or images that are portrayed in visual or written media that disturb the human\u2019s conscience.<\/p>\n This shows us that the AKP government by now thinks that the legal regulations, the Radio and Television Supreme Council\u2019s control, the tax authorities\u2019 penalties, are insufficient and thus, organizes the public to exert pressue in line with the government\u2019s ideology.<\/p>\n \u201cAdvanced democracy\u201d got to be something unlawful as this I suppose!<\/p>\n *** A public that is educated and led by imams\u2026<\/p>\n And a public that controls the morality and the media with the help of \u201cvoluntary organizations (!)\u201d that are formed by the government!<\/p>\n Could there be a clearer definition of fascism?<\/p>\n My \u201cliberal (!)\u201d friends they should enlighten us, so we learn!<\/p>\n (October 12th, 2010, Cumhuriyet daily)<\/em><\/p>\n Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 14Oct10 Emre Kongar evaluates recent steps taken by the AKP government. Putting them into context, Kongar argues that the ultimate goal of the AKP is to spread the government\u2019s ideology using imams as public opinion makers. Typical for totalitarian regimes, Kongar states, the AKP avails itself of pressure groups that enforce the ideology in all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":23418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[4269],"class_list":["post-23417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-bardakoglu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/EMREKONGAR.jpg\" "\\"EMREKONGAR\\"")
<\/p>\n
\nExactly at this point I remember a panel discussion I participated in during the 1980s.<\/p>\n
\nNow take a close look at the AKP\u2019s following two projects:<\/p>\n
\nThe second project is the \u201cparental supervision platform\u201d by Selma Aliye Kavaf, Minister of State for Women and Family Affairs, who was on the spotlight for saying that homosexuality was an illness and needed to be treated:<\/p>\n
\nThe outlook the AKP has in sight is clear:<\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\n