Tayyip Erdogan addresses Mps of his party (AKP) during a meeting of parliament in Ankara, Turkey on October 5, 2022. Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS
ANKARA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Turkey's government and opposition both vowed on Wednesday to take legal steps to ensure women's right to wear Islamic headscarf, an issue at the center of political debate ahead of next year's elections. Is.
The proposals came as President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK party and the opposition pushed for policy considerations ahead of next year's presidential and parliamentary elections, tracking opinion polls showing the outcome is still in limbo.
The headscarf issue was the focus of fierce conflict in Muslim but secular Turkey for years, but it was closed after reforms carried out by Erdogan's Islamist AK Party (AKP) during his two decades in power.
But the main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu unexpectedly revived the issue this week, announcing planned legislation amid efforts by his secularist CHP party to reach out to hardline Turks, for which the CHP has traditionally had little support. .
Erdogan has often targeted the CHP over his past opposition to broadening headscarf liberties, and on Wednesday also elaborated on the issue in a speech to parliament.
Erdogan said in response to the CHP "Come and solve this not only as a law but at the constitutional level," .
He did not elaborate, but suggested that the Constitution ensured the right of women to wear headscarf.
For more details Read: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/islamic-headscarf-returns-heart-turkish-political-debate-2022-10-05/