Turkish president thanks MPs for quiet headscarf episode

Four MPs entering the parliament wearing headscarves contributes to Turkey’s ‘normalization’, President Abdullah Gul says.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul thanked Friday members of the Turkish parliament for what appeared as the undoing of a long-standing taboo in the country as four MPs entered the assembly wearing headscarves.

“As you see, everyone became happy. I want to thank all parties that contributed to this instance of normalization,” Gul told journalists before departing for Edinburgh for a Turkish-British forum.

The arrival into the assembly of the four MPs, Sevde Beyazit, Gulay Samanci, Nurcan Darbulak and Gonul Bekin Sahkulubey, all members of ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, was largely uneventful, a far cry from the last time fourteen years ago.

Headscarves are now allowed in all public offices except in the judiciary and military, a decision announced as part of the democratization package.

Former Turkish MP Merve Kavakci had been forced to leave the assembly on her first day as MP amid a clapping protest on May 2, 1999.

Anatolia News Agency