Turkey’s main opposition MP questions ministry’s deal with Ensar foundation
ANKARA
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Istanbul lawmaker Sezgin Tanrıkulu has questioned a protocol signed between the Education Ministry and the Ensar Foundation, an Islamic-inspired children’s group that was previously embroiled in a major child abuse scandal.
In his parliamentary question directed to Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, Tanrıkulu asked why the Ensar Foundation was chosen for the five-year-long protocol, among many other questions.
The protocol signed in August concerned “cooperation in organizing certain educational and social events and seminars” between the foundation and the ministry, as well as giving the foundation the authority to organize social, artistic, sports, scientific and technological activities and seminars.
“Which criteria were taken into account when the protocol was signed with Ensar Foundation?” Tanrıkulu asked, reminding that the foundation was at the center of a scandal in 2016 after a teacher working in its branch in the Central Anatolian province of Karaman was convicted of sexually abusing 10 male school children aged 10-12 from 2012 and 2015.
“How will it be checked whether Ensar Foundation acts in accordance with basic and ethical principles? What is the reason behind allocating nine public buildings and lands to the Ensar Foundation, which is often reputed with child sexual abuse, in Istanbul by the city’s municipality?” he also asked.
