A Statement About Menderes' Konya Speech
The Prime Minister says that his words have been deliberately misinterpreted. (From our private correspondent.)
Ankara: Prime Minister Adnan Menderes replied as follows to a question asked by the newspaper Zafer concerning press reports of his speech in Konya.
“I too have regretfully seen how the part about secularism (laiklik) in the speech I delivered to my esteemed fellow citizens in Konya, who had gathered in a large crowd in Government Square, has been misrepresented by certain ill‑willed journalists. They wrote that some of things I said would pit brother against brother, that they challenged right-wing politicians, and had raised the ban on certain sacred matters, therefore infringing one of the main principles of the reforms.
What struck my attention in all these articles, was that my speech in Konya had been distorted and misrepresented in line with the aims they were following and the results they wished to obtain. So that this question should be properly understood, I want to firstly to take a look at what I said in Konya, and then to repeat what the Anadolu Press Agency released that day. That day I said this:
I now want to speak to you about my understanding of secularism. On the one hand, secularism means the separation of religion and politics, and on the other, it means freedom of conscience. We have not the slightest doubt or hesitation that religion and politics should be separate.
As for the question of freedom of conscience: the Turkish nation is Muslim and will remain Muslim. It is an undeniable fact that if it is to remain Muslim in perpetuity, religion must be taught to it and to the coming generations, and the rules, injunctions, and principles of religion be taught to them. How‑ ever, when there is no religious instruction in schools, the citizens who want their children to be taught their religion are bereft of this opportunity. Muslim children should not be deprived of the entirely natural right of learning their religion. It cannot be said that such deprivation and lack of opportunity is congruent with freedom of conscience. To have religious instruction in our middle schools is an apt and appropriate measure.
We do not believe that an irreligious society and nation will be stable and enduring. We know how even the most advanced nations persist in their attachment to religion after they have separated religion from the questions of politics and this world. It is not permissible that our noble nation be deemed bigoted when it has reached the level it has today. Just as our nation is firmly attached to its religion, so generally its religious feelings are of the purest kind. Religious feeling has reached the purest level in the nation's conscience. Efforts will be made to train instructors to teach Islam and its beliefs, obligations, and rules correctly. It is will be appropriate that the Konya School for Imams and Preachers (Imam—Hatip Mektebi), which next year will produce its first graduates at high‑school level, will be made into an institution for teaching religion at an advanced level and the numbers of similar institutions will be increased.”
“Having repeated this part of my Konya speech for the esteemed Turkish public opinion, I want to emphasize and make clear the following: what I said was so clear as to disallow any possibility of misinterpretation. It is imperative that reports of it or comments on it remain faithful to it. Nobody has the right to distort and misrepresent what I say, nor do they have the right to impute to me intentions and aims that have never even crossed my mind.”
Note: I was going to write some congratulations in the name of all the Nur students and innocent school children on the Prime Minister's Konya speech, but then it occurred to my heart that behind our defence speeches mentioning the Risale‑i Nur's freedom and the leading lawyer's reply to the experts' committee, the Prime Minister's speech was a reason for its freedom, for it made all the Anadolu Muslims and all the Nur students a moral strength for him and well-wishers. Just as the reinstatement of the Arabic call to prayer afforded the Prime Minister a moral strength, so also he won a moral strength with this speech and the Risale-i Nur's being left free. So rather than sending him congratulations, we made this a footnote to our defence lawyer's justified defence.
The Prime Minister's speech in Konya consists of true facts rebuffing those pretexts, just as the lawyer Mihrî's defence speeches refuted the pretexts put forward for A Guide for Youth's seizure.