Prosecutor launches investigation into CHP’s Sağlar over headscarf comments

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation against Republican People's Party (CHP) former lawmaker Fikri Sağlar for "inciting the public to enmity and hatred" over his remarks on the issue of the headscarf.

A statement made by the Ankara Chief Prosecutor's Office on Jan. 4 recalled a statement made by Sağlar on a television channel on Dec. 30 in which he said, "When I stand before a judge wearing a türban, I doubt that she will defend justice. Some of them act militantly and ideologically, and a struggle must be waged against this."

"The türban is the uniform of reactionary activities, those who want sharia. The headscarf has been a tradition in Anatolia for centuries. There is a huge difference between these," Sağlar said on the TV program.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Jan. 1 criticized Sağlar, a former culture minister, for his comments.

"This person is not living in this age. He lives in the past. This is, unfortunately, today's reflection of the CHP's fascist understanding as it had in the past," Erdoğan told reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul on Jan. 1.

Sağlar later said that a smear campaign was being carried out against him.

In his response to the ruling party's reactions, Sağlar said that with his comments, he tried demonstrating the difference between the türban and the headscarf and that he criticized the AKP for creating a militant nature of the judiciary.

The CHP's spokesmen clarified that Sağlar's views do not represent the main opposition's official stance on the matter.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the CHP's chairman, also rejected Sağlar's views, saying the CHP is not interested in how women dress in their daily lives, at work and even in courts.