Turkey's AKP under scrutiny for ties to religious radicals

"I didn't understand that it isn't normal to be married at the age of 6 until I looked it up on my phone," said a young woman, now 24, according to the transcript of a charge she filed with the authorities.

The woman said when she was 6 years old, her father, an influential member of the Turkey's Ismail Aga community, forced her into marriage with a 29-year-old man who also belongs to the same community. The child was wed to her husband in an Islamic marriage before a cleric, in a ceremony known as an imam marriage.

Such marriages aren't legally recognized in Turkey. Both practicing Muslims and secular Turks, however, perform it as a custom in addition to a civil marriage ceremony. When the girl was 18, the couple also married in a civil ceremony. They have since divorced.

The young woman's story triggered public outcry earlier this month after a journalist for Birgun, a left-wing daily newspaper, reported on the indictment, which includes pictures of the girl in her wedding dress. 

The man is alleged to have had sexual contact with her when she was still a child. Authorities have subsequently launched investigations against the ex-husband for "rape of a minor."

Religious groups gaining influence in Turkey

Although the Turkish public had been debating the issue for days, it took some time before the government addressed it. A spokesperson for the ruling AKP party eventually released a statement criticizing "child abuse" in general — without mentioning the Ismail Aga community, which supports the AKP in elections.

The Ismail Aga community is considered one of Turkey's largest Orthodox Sunni communities. The closed religious group preaches against laicism, the separation of state and religion, a principle on which the Turkish state was founded in 1923.

The community has strict rules for its members: women must cover themselves, while men have to wear beards. The group supports several Islamic schools, which promote the teachings of the Quran, as well as student dormitories.

The community was founded in 1980 by Imam Mahmut Ustaosmanoglu, who headed the group for 42 years before his death earlier this year. Ustaosmanoglu had a good relationship with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited the imam several times at the community's Istanbul mosque. When the imam died in June, the president and several AKP ministers attended his funeral.

Religious communities were banned in Turkey after the founding of the republic, but in recent decades some groups have begun to reestablish their presence.

Until 20 years ago, before the AKP came to power, these consisted of small, not very influential radical organizations on the fringes of society. Today, they are more influential than ever. Political parties on the right, in particular, have maintained close ties with Islamist communities. 

The community's influence also stretches beyond Turkey. In Germany, security authorities have been keeping an eye on the group; in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, it has been accused of "propagating the full validity of Sharia law."

Outsize influence of extremist groups

The Gulen movement was a particularly influential Islamist group, as revealed after the failed coup in 2016. Erdogan accused cleric Fethullah Gulen, his former close confidant, and his followers of being responsible for the attempted coup and had them removed from public office. More than 100,000 employees were forced out of their roles at government ministries, in public administration and the judiciary.

Observers have claimed these jobs were filled in part by members of the Ismail Aga community. In fact, many people who were trained in the Ismail Aga community now work in the Turkish judiciary, police and armed forces, as well in as the Education Ministry.

In 2007, Ilhan Cihaner, then chief public prosecutor in the eastern city of Erzincan, investigated the community for fraud, illegal fundraising and illegally teaching preschool and elementary school-aged children. The government put a stop to his efforts and had Cihaner arrested and investigated.

"In the past, the Gulen movement controlled the economy, the bureaucracy, the judiciary and even the army — despite the fact that they represented less than 2% or 3% of Turkish society," Cihaner, now a parliamentarian for the opposition Republican Peoples Party, told DW.

Only 4.3% of all Turks have a strong connection to a religious community, according to a survey by the Metropoll polling institute. In politics, however, they play a disproportionately larger role.

Competing to win supporters

Religious communities do a good job promoting their views and magnifying their power, said Ihsan Dagi of the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. "That increases their ability to negotiate with politicians; they negotiate at a much higher level than where they actually stand."

The Ismail Aga community is not the only ultraconservative group in the country — quite a few communities compete for influence in politics and society. When they boast about their power, they are sending rival communities the message that they are stronger than the others, said Dagi — and that in turn "helps them poach followers" from other groups.

Members of the Ismail Aga group have been up in arms about the report of underage marriage, and have demanded the arrest of the journalist who brought the story to light. The woman's current condition is not publicly known; in a YouTube video, however, her brother and sisters have contradicted the accusations against her husband.

This article was originally written in German.