ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
Eighty-four-year-old Erbakan launches the party’s electoral campaign in Istanbul’s conservative Eyüp district. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINIŞIK
The Saadet (Felicity) Party will make Turkey a leading country in the world and will work for the “happiness of all humanity.” This was the Saadet Party’s motto on Friday, when they launched their electoral campaign for next year’s general elections in Turkey.
“We will come [to power] to establish a new world [order],” said Necmettin Erbakan, Saadet’s founder and present leader, during his speech in Istanbul’s Eyüp district, where he has launched all his past electoral campaigns. Erbakan was reinstated as the party’s leader at Saadet’s extraordinary congress last month. “We will roll our sleeves up for more than six months to bring our [victory] back,” Erbakan said, adding that happiness and welfare could not be gained with “imitated visions [referring to the ruling AKP’s vision], by neglect or denial of Islam, by borrowing money and applying interest-rate policies.”
Hundreds of Saadet supporters, including considerable crowds of women, gathered in front of the Eyüp mosque to support the launch of Saadet’s electoral campaign by its historic leader. Turkish delight was distributed by women, and people carried placards reading, “Leading country, Turkey,” “We are not like the others, we are one and unique,” “The third rise begins: Felicity, abundance, welfare, plentitude is coming” and “A new world [order].”
We cannot bring “felicity” without a new, just world, Erbakan said, adding that Turkey had to rely on its own forces rather than on membership in the European Union for progress and development. Erbakan is the founder of the “milli görüş” – Turkish for “national view” – movement, under which Turkey would develop reliance on its own labor and economic power by conserving its own values and history.
“We will bring back the pool system,” Erbakan said, referring to a system for managing public finances and expenditures. He also promised that he would increase the economic welfare of the Turkish people by banning interest rates, regarded a sin in Islam, and by increasing wages and retirement pensions as well.
Erbakan’s call for “independence from the Western world” and for a world-leading Turkey standing on its own two feet seems to be favored by many Saadet supporters who talked to the Daily News after the meeting Friday.
“I support Erbakan as he strives for justice, for the “national view” case,” Nazmiye Turan, a 34-year-old Saadet supporter, told the Daily News in a Friday interview after Erbakan’s speech. “Our case is not only for the Muslims, but for the entire world. As our motto says, ‘A [leading] Turkey for the entire world,’” she added.
“Erbakan is a world leader,” said 45-year-old Saadet supporter Emine Çalaz, adding that she believed he would make Turkey better off once in power.
Erbakan will bring freedom of expression and religion, according to Büşra Gece, 18, a student who had come to support Saadet. She told the Daily News. “He will bring freedom for Muslims not only in Turkey, but all over the world.”
“We will become stronger not by compromising with Europe but by standing up on our own,” said Kamil Erdinç, a 63-year-old retiree, referring to Erbakan’s anti-EU calls. “The interest rates will be removed if Saadet comes to power,” he said, adding he did not have any expectations for himself from the party but believed it would make the country better off.