Who is AKP ?
Mutlu Civiroglu

National Security Council recommendations of February 28, 1997

1. The principle of secularism should be strictly enforced and laws should be modified for that purpose, if necessary.

2. Private dormitories, foundations, and schools affiliated with Sufi religious orders (tarikats) must be put under the control of relevant state authorities and eventually transferred to the Ministry of National Education (MNE), as required by the Law on Unified Education (Tevhid-i Tedrisat Kanunu). 

3. With a view toward rendering the tender minds of young generations inclined foremost toward love of the republic, Atatürk, the homeland, and the nation, and toward the ideal and goal of raising the Turkish nation to the level of modern civilization, and to protect them against the influence of various quarters :

a) an eight-year uninterrupted educational system must be implemented across the country.

b) the necessary administrative and legal adjustments should be made so that Koran courses, which children with basic education may attend with parental consent, operate only under the responsibility and control of the MNE.

4. Our national education institutes charged with raising enlightened clergy loyal to the republican regime and Atatürk’s principles and reforms must conform to the essence of the Law on Unified Education.

5. Religious facilities built in various parts of the country must not be used for political exploitation to send messages to certain circles. If there is a need for such facilities, the RAC should evaluate the need, and the facilities must be built in coordination with local governments and relevant authorities.

6. Activities of religious orders banned by Law no. 677, as well as all entities prohibited by said law, must be ended.

7. Media groups that oppose the TAF and its members should be brought under control. These [groups] try to depict the TAF as inimical to religion by exploiting the issue of personnel whose ties to the TAF have been severed by decisions of the Supreme Military Council (SMC, or Yüksek Askeri Sura) based on their fundamentalist activities.

8. Personnel expelled from military service because of fundamentalist activities, disciplinary problems, or connections with illegal organizations must not be employed by other public agencies and institutions or otherwise encouraged.

9. The measures taken within the framework of existing regulations to prevent infiltration into the TAF by the extremist religious sector should also be applied in other public institutions and establishments, particularly in universities and other educational institutions, at every level of the bureaucracy, and in judicial establishments.

10. Iran’s efforts to destabilize Turkey’s regime should be closely watched. Policies that would prevent Iran from meddling in Turkey’s internal affairs should be adopted.

11. Legal and administrative means must be used to prevent the very dangerous activities of the extremist religious sector that seeks to create polarization in society by fanning sectarian differences.

12. Legal and administrative proceedings against those responsible for incidents that contravene the Constitution of the Turkish Republic, the Law on Political Parties, the Turkish Penal Code, and especially the Law on Municipalities should be concluded in a short period of time, and firm measures should be taken at all levels not to allow repetition of such incidents.

13. Practices that violate the attire law and that may give Turkey an anachronistic image must be prevented.

14. Licensing procedures for short- and long-barrel weapons, which have been issued for various reasons, must be reorganized on the basis of police and gendarmerie districts. Restrictions must be introduced on this issue, and the demand for pump-action rifles, in particular, must be evaluated carefully.

15. The collection of [animal] sacrifice hides by anti-regime and uncontrolled [unregulated] organizations and establishments for the purpose of securing financial resources should be prevented, and no collection of sacrifice hides should be allowed outside the authority recognized by law.

16. Legal proceedings against bodyguards dressed in special uniforms and those responsible for them should be concluded speedily, and, taking into account the fact that such illegal practices might reach dangerous proportions, all private bodyguard units not envisaged by the law should be disbanded.

17. Initiatives that aim at solving the country’s problems on the basis of “umma” [religious community] rather than “nation” and that encourage the separatist terror organizations by approaching it on the same basis [i.e., as a part of the umma] should be prevented by legal and administrative means.

18. Law no. 5816, which defines crimes against the great savior Atatürk, including acts of disrespect, must be fully implemented.

You can get further information from Washington Kurdish Institute web page : www.kurd.org