Former imam says he is threatened and attacked for refuting Erdoan Gezi’s claims

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The former imam of an Istanbul mosque where protesters took refuge during the 2013 Gezi protests said he faced attacks and threats for contradicting President Recep Tayyip Erdoan’s account that the demonstrators were consuming alcohol in the mosque, the daily Szc reported.

The Gezi Park protests in June 2013 were sparked in Istanbul against Prime Minister Erdoan’s government plans to demolish Gezi Park in the popular Taksim district and quickly turned into anti-government protests across Turkey. The protests were violently suppressed by the government, resulting in the deaths of 11 protesters due to the disproportionate use of force by the police.

Fuat Yldrm, then deputy imam of the historic Bezmialem Valide Sultan Mosque in Beikta, spoke to Smail journalist Saymaz of the Szc daily about his ordeal after the Gezi Park protests.

Yldrm, who was recently nominated as the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) parliamentary candidate in the upcoming elections in May, said he had come under attack and threats after refuting claims by Erdoans that protesters in Gezi Park had acted disrespectfully in the mosque, drank beer there and left the bottles behind.

Alcohol is not allowed in the Muslim religion and drinking alcohol in a place of worship is considered disrespectful.

Yldrm said during police questioning at the time that thousands of people took refuge in the mosque after police began using tear gas. In the commotion, he had seen people with their shoes on in the mosque, which is usually not allowed, but he had not seen anyone consuming alcohol. He added that as an imam he could not lie and say what he had not seen.

Yldrm was removed from his post in September 2013, after the wave of protests died down, and sent to work at a village mosque on the outskirts of Istanbul, in a move that was seen as a demotion because he had contradicts Erdoan’s account.

During the weeks of protest, Erdoan also said that a series of disrespectful activities took place in the mosque and were filmed and would later be shown to the public. However, no such video has ever been made public.

Yldrm told Ylmaz that he received threatening calls whenever this issue was on the public agenda and that he was eventually attacked by six people armed with guns after performing evening prayers one day. day.

They attacked me saying: How dare you refute [the claims of] our president? Then one of them pulled out a gun. He didn’t have the courage to shoot. He hit me with the pistol grip, breaking my skin. The bleeding wouldn’t stop. They said, let’s take you to the hospital. But I said it would make headlines, the columnist said quoting Yldrm.

Yldrm also said that Yasin Yldz, then deputy secretary general of parliament and current head of the National Palaces Department, and a team took photos and videos inside the mosque before it was examined by the investigation team. at the crime scene and ruined the evidence.

The deputy imam added that he had seen in the newspapers the following day a photo of a can of beer outside a mosque window before Yldz and his crew arrived, and others taken at the interior of the mosque, implying that it was a move to create the perception that beer was being consumed in the mosque during the protests.

Yldrm claims Erdoan was deceived about what happened in the mosque

The Deputy Imam added that although he told then ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker Sleyman Gndz and then European Union Affairs Minister Egemen Ba , that he did not see anyone drinking alcohol in the mosque during the protests, Ba lied to Erdoan and said that Yldrm only said so because he was threatened by the Press Council, one of the leading journalism organizations in Turkey.

Yldrm further stated that Erdoan then claimed at a party rally that Yldrm had been threatened and that news reports containing his statements that he had not seen any protesters commit disrespectful acts in the mosque, including consumption of alcohol, had been manufactured.

According to Ylmaz, Yldrm confronted Ba on the issue when he came to visit her at the mosque a few weeks later.

I told her, while I was telling you the truth, you twisted the facts, cheated [Erdoan] and put us in danger. He whispered in my ear, sir, sir likes that stuff, in reference to the president, Yldrm told the columnist.

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