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| Hizb-ut-Tahrir fails to provoke local police |
| 2005-09-06 |
| Attention has been turned on the police who did not intervene in the Hizb-ut Tahrir demonstration held in the yard of Fatih Mosque in Istanbul Sunday. Ankara has deeply bothered by the demonstration, which recalled the February 28 process and provoked much comment in newspapers. Interior Ministry and Security Directorate have been targetted with the criticism of why the police did not intervene, and why the internal and foreign ties of the organization should not have been scrutinized. It is not imaginable that Turkish Security was not informed of the demonstration as it was announced to the press before the event, so the police must have intentionally decided not to intervene. The police defend themselves saying they restrained themselves and were simply watching over the event to avoid wider provocations. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the other side, had said that the police should have stepped in. According to a security official, had the police intervened, the group would have fled inside the mosque and the scale of the incident would have grown. "Can you imagine the reaction? 'Police enter a place of worship with their boots on.' Besides, legal proceedings were immediately started against the demonstrators just after the event." The same official reported that the group used women and children as well. Recalling the reactions that followed police intervention targeting an illegal group on March 8 Women's Day were still fresh in the minds of officers, the official said: "Either we give in to the provocation and step in, or do not intervene and confront the wrath of the press." According to a secret notice signed by Turkish Minister of Internal Affairs Abdulkadir Aksu circulated two months ago, all the security forces were warned against provocative mass demonstrations and events during their interference. Therefore, the cool attitude of the Police prevented the demonstration of Hizb-ut Tahrir with a press release only. Again, in another circular by the Internal Ministry, it is said: "If the group doesn't violate the laws during their announcement to the press, don't interfere. If there are illegal attitudes or the group starts to act illegal you should immediately report them to the public prosecutor." The authorities noted, the press release of the organization did not violate the law in this frame and the demonstrators are already on trial for insulting the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The police also has restricted authority to interfere in line with the integration laws to European Union. According to the new laws, propaganda is no longer a crime. It means that someone may say, "I want to bring communism to Turkey" or "I want a Caliphate in Turkey" but this is not a crime. The place of Hizb-ut Tahrir in the new world order should not be ignored but we should not also limit our scope only to this marginal demonstration. So far, we have discussed whether the organization is a terrorist organization or not. Reportedly, it is tried with the 4928th issue of Terror Act as it can be tried for its ideological and organizational frame. However, it cannot be tried in the frame of violence or using force. The organization is on the US agenda as well The Turkish Court of Appeals has given two different decisions about "Hizb ut-Tahrir" so far. In the first, the Court announced in its decision dated 2000 that this group is not a "terrorist organization". It defined the group as a "terrorist organization" in its decision dated 2004 in Adana. As the grounds for its decision, the court showed that the organization wants to destroy the constitutional order. However, the police have not still obtained any evidences proving that the organization is involved in any terrorist activities so far. An application from the Court of Appeals to the Police Office asks whether Hizb-ut Tahrir is a terrorist organization or not. The Police Office says since the group has not been involved in using force and violence so far, it cannot be termed as a "terrorist organization". This gives rise to questions like, "Who brings the Hizb-ut Tahrir issue to Turkey's agenda? Who refreshes the concept of Caliphate in the name of religion while the world is struggling with al-Qaeda?" We should bear in mind that, although Hizb-ut Tahrir has just come to our agenda, it is an organization, on which many think tank institutions are conducting studies in the US. The Nixon Center and The Heritage Foundation have issued two comprehensive reports about the organization. The studies on the organization conducted in the US intensified in 2003 in which also some experts from Turkey participated. The region where the Middle East origin organization spreads closely interests Turkey. The gap formed after the collapse of the Soviet regime in Central Asia is filled by radical organizations such as Hizb-ut Tahrir. The activities to be realized by the organization, deployed in the world's new energy corridor, target the stability of region countries. Hizb-ut Tahrir makes Central Asia open to Russian intervention just as the US used al-Qaeda activities to legitimate its interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. See, what a Russian terror analyst says regarding the Hizb-ut Tahrir organization, which has abstained from armed activities so far: What al-Qaeda means for US is the same as what Hizb-ut Tahrir means for us. One more reminder; the activities of this organization have only been distributing papers after prayers in mosques and making press releases so far. However, after Turkey received a date for accession talks from the European Union (EU) on December 17, remarkable changes have occurred in the discourse of the organization. In the papers distributed in the mosque yards, Hizb-ut Tahrir gave responses similar to the "nationalistic" discourse by severely criticizing the government and the prime minister. We will see how this organization, though it still not certain whether a terrorist organization or not, will occupy the world and Turkey's agenda in the upcoming days. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |