(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A deputy from the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has urged state officials to reconstruct mosques that were demolished under the single-party regime of the early republican era.
In an exclusive interview with Cihan news agency, Çorum deputy Salim Uslu said hundreds of mosques were either demolished or converted into pubs or horse stables as a result of the policies of the CHP between 1923 and 1950.
While engaged in harsh debate with opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu last July, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that during the first decades of the republic – during which time the CHP was the only ruling party -- many mosques were used as stables. He highlighted the disrespectful attitude of the government at that time towards religion and religious institutions.
Kılıçdaroğlu shot back and accused the prime minister of a betrayal of his own history. According to Kılıçdaroğlu, during the 1930s and 1940s the CHP used mosques as military barracks rather than stables. He asserted that this was necessary in the face of there existing insufficient barracks for the mobilization of the entire army.
"I'm trying to reveal the fate of the mosques in just Çorum and its districts. Roughly 43 mosques were eliminated in the provincial capital of Çorum and the surrounding İskilip and Osmancık districts," said Uslu, as he urged the government to show sensitivity toward historic assets in the country by constructing replicas of those mosques.
He also weighed in on debates over Turkey's confrontation with the dark pages of republican history and argued that the country must have the courage to reopen unresolved cases in an attempt to bring reconciliation and peace to those who suffered most as a result of the events in Çorum, Maraş and Başbağlar.
Dozens of Alevis lost their lives in sectarian strife in Maraş and Çorum in the late 1970s.
He also pointed out that many people such as İskilpli Atıf Hoca and Said Nursi --both of them well-known religious figures of the period -- suffered under the brutal policies of the single-party regime. İskilpli Atıf Hoca was executed for taking a stand against the 1925 "Hat Act," a law that banned the fez and made it compulsory to wear a hat.
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