In his television shows, Mr. Adnan Oktar emphasizes that members of the CHP have to re-evaluate their party's structure and adopt a new and more religious image and a new name that appeals to the people’s spirits and embraces scholars. Following this comment, CHP Provincial Chairman Mr. Selim Karakas made a statement in line with Mr. Oktar’s explanations and said that they were considered as “anti-religious and partisans of state control” by the religious segments, which causes them to lose the votes of this rural segment and that they have to adopt a new name and image if necessary. A9 TV: April 13th, 2014 ADNAN OKTAR: There was a program on about the young members of the CHP; I liked it a lot. They asked, “How can we make CHP better?” I looked and they are very modern people. There are no bitter, fanatical people among them. This is very important. It is very important that there are no communists, anarchists, or terrorists infiltrating the CHP. I used to see people like that. The CHP is a very modern party. So there needs to be bright and enlightened faces there. What does a follower of Ataturk mean? It means a person who believes in Allah, loves his people, is religious but not a radical. Truly religious people against bigotry: This is what we are expecting from the youth of the CHP, insha’Allah. A9 TV: April 18th, 2014 ADNAN OKTAR: Kılıçdaroğlu is a very decent person. If only they could re-assessthe CHP and renew its structure.The CHP must adopt a view that is modern, religious, reasonable, loving, compassionate, conciliatory and it must be able to criticize its own past and say, “Such and such things were wrong but we are a new CHP.” “There is the old CHP and there is the new CHP.” They must say, “We are completely different. We embrace all people.” They keep bringing forth ex-leftists. They must leave their place to modern young men and women so they can deliver good messages. Talk about Allah and religion; why should the left be distant about this? Take hold of and embrace the sacred. Embrace Said Nursi, Bahattin Nakshibendi, Abdulqadir Gaylani, Suleyman Hilmi Tunahan and all the others. Then the people would embrace you as well. Had the CHP grown a little more distant from religion, it would lose everything. They have got this many votes because they are closer to religion now. The people would fear anyone whom they consider as anti-religious. If someone says, “I will turn Turkey into Paris”, people would say, “It is not important. What will you do to religion?” No. What would they do with economy? The people would live with a single dish; with some bread and cheese. You will not touch their religion. You will not touch it, and you will do extra to protect it. The best thing the CHP could do is to adopt a mentality that will appeal to the spirit of the Anatolian people rapidly and to come out as a party of the masses. The CHP must give up being a party that people are afraid of; most religious people are afraid of CHP. If they say, “We are the new CHP. We have a new point of view. We embrace the people and the faith of the people” and if they support the Islamic Union, the Turkish Islamic Union, -the AKP does not have anything special- the CHP would be become the new AK Party. The AKP's specialty is that it carries these qualities. If the CHP has these qualities as well, the people would turn towards the CHP; otherwise it will not happen. |
