Taha Toros Arşivi, Dosya Adı: Taha Torosİstanbul Kalkınma Ajansı (TR10/14/YEN/0033) İstanbul Development Agency (TR10/14/YEN/0033

Toros, Harmonie

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inday, January 17,1999
Virtue Party reaches out to the poor ahead o f elections
HARMONIE TOROS
Ankara - The Associated Press
■ Hundreds of men and women stand 
in segregated lines outside a white 
tent in the center of Ankara. They are 
waiting to be served the meal that 
breaks their daily religious fast dur­
ing the month of Ramadan - compli­
ments of Ankara’s mayor.
The message of the Islamic local 
leaders is clear: “We care.”
“They do this for thé people, 
because they worry for us,” said 
Zeynel Güzel, 52, a retired civil ser­
vant who says that he comes for the 
free food because his pension check 
has run out.
Ever since it took over the munici­
pality four years, Ankara’s Islamic 
administration has distributed free 
food in four centers throughout town 
during Ramadan, when Muslims fast 
from sunlight to sunset.
This year though, Ramadan comes 
just three months ahead of legislative 
and municipal elections, when once 
again voters will choose between 
Turkey’s deeply-divided secular par­
ties and the powerful Islamic Virtue 
party, currently the largest in 
Parliament.
“The previous administration did 
not do this,” said Güzel, who says he 
will vote to re-elect Gökçek.
“They are doing this for the people 
- and for themselves. For the votes,” 
said 19-year-old Aylin Şen, one of a 
handful of women who isn’t wearing 
the traditional Muslim head scarf.
Men and women are separated to 
avoid physical contact, which is 
frowned upon in Islam. Some 8,000 
people are served each day.
“So, did you eat well? Did the 
municipality make you happy?” a 
civil servant asked one diner as he 
finished his soup, meatballs and 
rice.
The city administration rejects any 
link between the food distribution 
and the upcoming elections.
“We are not doing this for votes. 
We have been doing this every day 
for four and a half years,” said Arif 
Yilmaz, a senior municipal official, 
adding that the municipality distrib­
utes free food all year around in sev­
eral soup kitchens.
A sub-municipality in Ankara run 
by a pro-secular mayor does not 
serve food during Ramadan.
Social welfare has always been a 
bastion of the Islamic movement’s 
program, especially during the 1995 
legislative campaign that led the 
Islamic Welfare Party to grab the 
largest number of seats in Parliament.
In effect, their election campaigns 
never end. They distribute food and 
coal and have opened free health 
clinics in poor neighborhoods.
“The pro-Islamic party’s strength 
is its ground troops who are willing 
to carry out door-to-door canvassing 
for the party,” said liter Turan, a 
political scientist at Istanbul’s Bilgi 
University.
“They are exceptionally well-orga­
nized,” Turan said.
Secular parties carry out more tra­
ditional campaigns, with buses riding 
through city streets distributing 
leaflets or calling out to voters 
through loudspeakers.
Welfare was banned last year on 
the grounds in violated the secular 
principles of the Turkish republic. It 
was replaced by Virtue, which is 
leading most opinion polls for the 
April 18 legislative and municipal 
elections.
Turkey’s first Islamic-led govern­
ment was forced out of office in June 
1997 by the powerful military, the 
self-appointed guarantor of Turkey’s 
secular constitution.
Fear that Virtue may return to 
power after the elections prompted 
the country’s top brass to issue three 
warnings so far this year against the 
dangers of Islam-based politics. The 
military has staged three coups since 
1960.
Hundreds of people stand In lines 
outside a tent in the center of 
Turkish capital of Ankara about 
30 minutes before being served 
their first meal since dawn, 
offered by pro-lslamic Ankara 
Municipality. AP Photo
Kişisel Arşivlerde Istanbul Belleği 
Taha Toros Arşivi


Virtue Party reaches out to the poor ahead of elections

http://openaccess.marmara.edu.tr//bitstream/11424/155139/3/001504946006.pdf

Virtue Party reaches out to the poor ahead of elections

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