Message from Devlet Bahçeli on Al-Aqsa Mosque

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli has made statements regarding the closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first qibla. Bahçeli stated, "The sorrow of our first qibla, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has been kept closed for fifteen days, is a heartache for all of us, for everyone who calls themselves a Muslim. This oppression must come to an end."

The full text of Bahçeli's statement is as follows;

While on one hand we are approaching the end of Ramadan, the sultan of eleven months, on the other hand, we are experiencing the spiritual beauty, albeit bittersweet, of being honored with the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr), which is heralded in the Holy Quran as being better than a thousand months.

We are bittersweet because the peace and tranquility of the month of Ramadan have unfortunately been violated on every front, and the ongoing high-intensity war and conflicts have severely battered and wounded the Islamic world.

Unfortunately, the deep cracks in the spirit of unity, solidarity, and togetherness, which we pray and desire to manifest in a way consistent with our faith and beliefs, have led to many problems occurring step by step.

While we should be observing a month of Ramadan surrounded by reverence and peace; flying missiles, targeted innocent people, destroyed strategic infrastructure, and geopolitical tensions that constantly raise the bar have held our religious brothers in particular, and the sovereign rights of Islamic countries in general, hostage, damaging our civilization's heritage at every turn.

On this Night of Power, when we believe that peace will exist until the break of dawn, it is necessary to question, with a sincere and honest conscience, why pain, genocide, and wars are nested in the Islamic geography, and to activate a moral and consistent mechanism of self-criticism.

It must be fundamental never to forget that as long as we are disorganized internally and as long as seeds of discord flourish among us, all kinds of aggressive external interventions will be carried out.

The fact that the Zionist-imperialist-originated war and murder machine is constantly shedding Muslim blood, and furthermore, turning the Islamic geography into an arena of war and conflict, is a cruel, vicious cycle of heinous nature as well as an example of one-sided tyranny that is impossible to tolerate.

At this stage we have reached, it is very clear that if we do not or cannot protect our freedom of belief and our historical rights stemming from being human, our existence and vital interests will be trampled upon step by step.

The horizon of Ankara and Tehran looks in the same direction. The fate of Ankara and Baghdad and Damascus, and of Jerusalem and Gaza, is united on the same common denominator.

The sorrow of our first qibla, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has been kept closed for fifteen days, is a heartache for all of us, for everyone who calls themselves a Muslim.

This oppression must come to an end.

My wish is to gather ourselves together through the completion of the consciousness of brotherhood, without falling into the dark corridors of Zionist-imperialist conspiracies, and to disperse the nightmare clouds that block our vision with the dignity and honor of our faith.

On this Night of Power, which I hope to fulfill with the respect and value it deserves, it is a historical responsibility to turn to ourselves, to diagnose where mistakes were made, where gaps were left, and where weaknesses emerged, accompanied by a clean conscience, and to take appropriate measures accordingly.

I congratulate the blessed Night of Power of the noble Turkish nation, the Turkish-Islamic world, and all our dear citizens living at home and abroad, and I sincerely wish for us to meet in the crucible of our prayers and common goals.

I say, may our Night of Power be blessed.

I pray that Almighty Allah may be the helper and supporter of the Turkish nation and our brothers who are struggling for a dignified life in our heartlands and cultural geographies.

News Source: 12punto