Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday called for a referendum over the country’s long-standing headscarf issue amid a political debate on the matter with the main opposition leader, Ahval reports.
Speaking during an opening ceremony for healthcare facilities in eastern Malatya province, Erdoğan challenged the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) to take the issue of introducing a law to protect the right to wear a headscarf in public institutions “to the people,” Cumhuriyet newspaper reported.
The CHP leader earlier this month vowed to take legal steps to enshrine women's right to wear Islamic headscarves, prompting a long-time political debate on a deeply divisive issue ahead of next year's parliamentary and presidential elections. Erdoğan responded by calling for a solution at the constitutional level, while insisting the issue had been resolved under his two-decades in power.
The headscarf issue and legislation to support the Islamic garb is contentious one among secularist CHP voters and has traditionally received little support.
Turkey banned the wearing of headscarves in public institutions following the 1980 military coup in a move that affected university staff, students, lawyers, politicians, physicians and public sector workers.
"This is the first time I am announcing this. Let us take this matter to a referendum if it is so easy (for you),’’ Erdoğan said, addressing the CHP leader. "If this matter cannot be solved in parliament, let the people decide.’’
Turkey's parliament in 2008 lifted a decades-old ban at universities - a move led by Erdoğan, which CHP lawmakers, including Kılıçdaroğlu attempted unsuccessfully to block in the country’s top court. In 2013, the country lifted the ban on women wearing headscarves in state institutions as part of reforms by Erdoğan’s government seeking to bolster democracy.
CHP’s Kılıçdaroğlu has greenlighted support for a constitutional change on the headscarf “if there is no cunning agenda behind it,” BirGün newspaper reported.
