AK Party deputy Hakan Şükür resigns due to friction over prep schools
Hakan Şükür, a Turkish member of Parliament and former international football player, quit Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling party on Monday in protest at a government plan to shut down prep schools, revealing underlying intra-party squabbles.
The resignation came after Şükür expressed his objection to a government proposal to shut down prep schools, which help students prepare for university and high school admission exams.
İstanbul deputy Şükür said he was personally offended by what he called "hostile moves" against the Hizmet movement led by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
"For over 20 years I have known and loved the Hizmet movement," Şükür said in a statement carried by several Turkish news outlets.
"To treat these people who have staunchly supported the government in every issue … as enemies is at best nothing but ingratitude," the former Galatasaray, Inter Milan and Blackburn Rovers football player said.
Şükür's departure from the AK Party is the most tangible fallout yet of a rift over the government proposal to close down prep schools.
Gülen's schools are a powerful instrument of influence, creating a network of elite contacts and personal loyalties.
The Hizmet movement has helped Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AK Party) win a growing share of the vote in three successive elections over the past decade.
But there have long been ideological differences, with many of Gülen's followers seeing him as a more progressive and pro-Western influence on Turkey than Erdoğan, whose views on issues from abortion to alcohol consumption have triggered growing accusations of interference in private life.
Since he came to power in 2002, Erdoğan has built his own body of wealthy loyalists, largely from the same religiously minded professional class that revere Gülen.
Full statement issued by Hakan Şükür:
I felt obliged to deliver the statement below after the emergence of some recent developments hurting anyone with a conscience.
First of all, I need to clarify that politics has never been a priority for me. But it would not have been nice to reject the sincere invitation of Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] because of the position he represents and my respect for him as a person. I accepted Mr. Prime Minister's invitation [to take part in politics]. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has left its mark on significant achievements and reforms over the past 11 years. However, some negative and irrational approaches that came to the forefront with the issue of closing prep schools hurt people's conscience.
It is not correct to portray dershanes [prep schools] as the only source of woes in the education system despite the existence of dozens of other chronic problems that need to be solved. This kind of approach does not befit the line that the party has represented over the past 11 years. I'm unable to understand Mr. Prime Minister's indifference to persistent explanations, complaints and demands despite the fact that he displayed wisdom in the past by backing down from some [of his] decisions upon opposition [shown to them].
I had retained my hope that the issue of dershanes could evolve into a positive step by taking the demands of sincere people into account. While expecting this, the comparison between dershanes and the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) [an umbrella organization that encompasses the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)] that was made in my presence and the fact that neither the prime minister nor the party headquarters showed any reaction to this, let alone issuing an apology, hurt my conscience. Moreover, it was not good to take the issue of dershanes to other areas.
I have known the Hizmet movement and Mr. Fethullah Gülen Hocaefendi for over 20 years. Treating the movement, which has strongly backed the government on any policy that benefits society, including the 2010 referendum, by persuading people after engaging them door by door, bringing thousands of people from abroad to vote in the referendum, and also praying for the AK Party's well-being during its closure case [in 2008], is nothing but disloyalty.
Those people whose dershanes are being shut down, and who are being expelled from state institutions and who face pressure and profiling which were described as immorality by our senior party officials, are this nation's sons. Despite this fact, some headlines and accusations trying to depict these people as engaged in criminal and dark activities will go down in history as examples of sheer carelessness. And labeling this voluntary movement [a terrorist] organization, which recently gained wide currency, raises concern that the issue is not confined to “dershanes.”
There were also comments suggesting that the expression “some people changed when they experienced comfort and prosperity” refers to members of the Hizmet movement. I do not wish to presume that Mr. Prime Minister intended to say such a thing. But if these claims are true, they ignore the sacrifice of millions of volunteers. Do these people who represent our nation and flag around the world, working for peanuts without any material expectation, enjoy prosperity? Or does Mr. Gülen Hocaefendi, who has lived in a small, 20-square-meter room for 15 years in exile and whose residence, designed as a social facility to host guests, was unjustly described as a “mansion” by a [Turkish] media outlet, enjoy such prosperity? It is impossible to approve of a smear campaign and false accusations that aim to hurt this person who has no ambition but to serve his religion, his nation and the entire humankind all his life.
I take personally all those hostile acts, slander and insults against Mr. Hocaefendi as one of millions of volunteer members of this movement, which has no objective but to serve this nation and humanity.
Everyone, including Mr. Prime Minister, who knows me well, knows that I have never had an expectation during my political career. I have never had a demand for myself, nor my family and relatives. My goal was only to make a small contribution to this political party, which I considered was doing the right thing. But after this point this is clearly no longer possible.
In the meantime, I have also observed that some people whom I viewed as friends have joined the chorus of “finishing the movement” either voluntarily or due to pressure. This has also deeply saddened me. It is quite interesting that people who have visited Mr. Gülen Hocaefendi several times, and who attended the Turkish Olympiads, have praised the movement in good days but then suddenly become silent. It is inexplicable that these friends, who know better than me that those who remain silent in the face of injustice are a tongueless devil, prefer silence to taking action against a defamation campaign and unjust acts. I expected some people, whether they are journalists, academics, religious figures, deputies or bureaucrats, to bravely take action to defuse tension and help undo the mistake being made. Unfortunately, no one has shown this courage except for a few scrupulous opinion leaders and journalists.
I do know that some type of defamation campaign will be launched against my personality after this decision. I am used to numerous such situations throughout my sports career. In 2002, after I said I love Hocaefendi (Fethullah Gülen) during the late Mehmet Ali Birand's “32. Gün” program, I was called to testify at a State Security Court so that what I said would be perceived as a crime. Without denying what I said, I expressed my feelings in my testimony. Today, there is not a single change in my thoughts. While I conclude my statement with these feelings, I declare, sadly, that I hereby resign from the AK Party - which I joined with great hopes - and that I will continue my political life as a representative of my people and an independent member of Parliament.
I expect the prayers of our dear nation and I extend each and every one of you my deepest greetings and respect.
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