“I thought it was normal to get married at the age of six. I found out it wasn’t until I searched my smartphone for information,” says a Turkish woman who is now 24.
Her father married her to a 29-year-old man when she was just 6, she says German wave. His father was an influential member of the ‘Ismail Aga’ community, of which the groom was also a member. The wedding was only religious – in front of the Khoja. These marriages are not legal, but many Turks and Turks enter them, even when they are not pious, simply out of tradition. When the girl turned 18, the civil marriage was concluded. Today the two are already divorced.
The affair broke out after the woman filed a complaint, and journalist Timur Soykan reported the case on the pages of the left-wing newspaper “BirGyun”. The article claims that the man had sexual contact with his “wife” while she was still a child, meaning that a sexual assault took place. Meanwhile, the accusation of “rape of a minor” has already been made against him. Among the documents attached to the indictment there are also photos of the girl in a wedding dress.
The connection with Erdogan’s party
In Turkey, this matter has been the subject of heated debate for days, but the government has remained silent for a long time. Finally, a spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party spoke out critically against the “assaults against children”, but did not say a word about “Ismail Agha” – a community that supports the ruling party in the elections.
It is considered one of the largest Orthodox-Sunni communities in Turkey and strongly opposes the separation of religion and state, which, however, is the basis of today’s Turkish statehood. Women in this community must wear a veil, men a beard. The religious community maintains its own religious schools and student dormitories. When its founder, Mahmud Ustaosmanoglu, died in June this year, President Erdogan and many of his party members personally attended the funeral ceremony. And even during his lifetime, Ustaosmanoglu maintained good relations with the president.
This religious organization has extended its tentacles abroad. In Germany, the secret services keep an eye on her, and in one of the federal states she is even accused of wanting to impose sharia as a universally valid law.
Indeed, such religious communities have been banned in Turkey since the founding of the republic 100 years ago. But meanwhile things are changing: in recent decades they have “revived”. Before the rule of the Justice and Development Party, these communities had no influence, they were small radical organizations. But today they are more influential than ever. Especially the right-wing parties maintain excellent relations with them.
One of the most influential such organizations is the movement of Fethullah Gülen, also known in Bulgaria, which was once a close ally of President Erdogan. However, after the coup attempt, Erdogan blamed Gülen and his supporters and removed them from all government posts. As a result, there was a shortage of personnel in ministries, the judiciary and the administration: hundreds of thousands of jobs suddenly fell vacant. Many observers say that this hole was full of ‘Ismail Agha’ followers. It is a fact that many people who received their education thanks to this community are now working in the judiciary, the police, the army and the Ministry of Education.
In 2007, prosecutor Ilhan Cihaner launched an investigation against the community in a Turkish city on charges of fraud, illegal collection of donations and illegal schooling of children. But the government dropped the investigation and ordered Jihaner’s arrest and investigation. Today he is an opposition deputy and in an interview with DV he says: “At the time, the Gülen Movement controlled the economy, administration, justice and the army. Given that it did not represent more than 3% of the Turkish population” .
Why are these communities so influential?
According to a survey, only 4.3% of Turks maintain a strong connection with a religious community. However, these communities play a disproportionately large role in politics. And “Ismail Agha” is not the only extremely conservative group of this kind. His supporters reacted with violent insults against Timur Soykan’s articles and even called for the journalist’s arrest. And what happens to the injured woman today – this is not known. His brother and sisters posted a video on YouTube denying the allegations.
Despite these objections, however, for Turkish society, the young woman’s story offers a rare opportunity to peek behind the curtain of such closed religious circles.
