Excluded in 2015 from her party in Belgium for refusing to recognize the Armenian genocide, the Turkish-Belgo Mahinur Ozdemir was able to rebound in her country of origin, according to France 24, by becoming Minister of Family and Social Affairs and the only woman appointed to the new Turkish government. A look back at the eventful journey of this close friend of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and former controversial figure of Belgian politics.
During the swearing-in of Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday 3 June, Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas did not go unnoticed. In the midst of 16 men and the newly re-elected president, she is the only woman to appear on the official photograph of the new government. At 40, she inherited the Family and Social Affairs portfolio. A consecration for the former ambassador of Ankara in Algeria, her first mission for Turkey.
Because before that, it is in Belgium, in the life of associations and politics, that it is engaged at the dawn of the 2000s. Born into a family of small traders in Schaerbeek, a multicultural town in Brussels, the young woman obtained a diploma in public administration before being spotted in 2005 by executives of the Centre démocrate humaniste (CDH). Elected city councillor at only 23, she became the protégé of Joëlle Milquet, the president of this centrist party that sees in her a pioneer and a future talent of Brussels politics. But within the political party, the Islamic veil worn by Mahinur Ozdemir divides.
“There was then a form of paradox for this centrist party of Christian inspiration to present a candidate who claimed the wearing of the veil”, deciphers Benjamin Biard of the Centre for socio-political research and information (Crisp) which recalls the proportion of electoral calculation that prevailed at that time. In Brussels, we know that people of the Muslim faith vote heavily for the left, and at one point there was a desire from other political parties to attract these new voices,’ adds the Belgian political scientist. As a sign of the malaise that reigns within the HRC on “the Ozdemir case”, the young woman’s veil “mysteriously disappears” from campaign posters for the regional elections. Joëlle Milquet will argue, without convincing, the regrettable mistake of a graphic designer.
The veil of discord
Her career reached a turning point in 2009 when she was thrust into the front of the news. At 27, the daughter of an immigrant grocer becomes the youngest elected member of the Parliament of Brussels, but especially the first veiled parliamentarian in Europe. Teams from Turkish television and even Al-Jazeera are making the trip to cover the event. His presence in the elected Assembly sparked a lively debate on secularism in Belgium. A Liberal member is proposing to ban the wearing of religious signs in federal and regional parliaments. The HRC pretends to be surprised by the media coverage of this big premiere. As much in 2006, when I was sworn in to the municipal council, I had no negative reaction, I really swore in calmly. As much in 2009, I did not understand the excitement that had gone beyond the national framework”, will remember a year later Mahinur Ozdemir in an interview with the newspaper La Libre.
“There was then a form of paradox for this centrist party of Christian inspiration to present a candidate who claimed the wearing of the veil”, deciphers Benjamin Biard of the Centre for socio-political research and information (Crisp) which recalls the proportion of electoral calculation that prevailed at that time. In Brussels, we know that people of the Muslim faith vote heavily for the left, and at one point there was a desire from other political parties to attract these new voices,’ adds the Belgian political scientist. As a sign of the malaise that reigns within the HRC on “the Ozdemir case”, the young woman’s veil “mysteriously disappears” from campaign posters for the regional elections. Joëlle Milquet will argue, without convincing, the regrettable mistake of a graphic designer.
Tirelessly asked about this scarf she has been wearing by choice since she was 14 years old, the Belgo-Turque is annoyed to be designated as “the veiled deputy” preferring to evoke subjects that are important to her like discrimination at the hiring, helping single-parent families or violence against women.
Erdogan invited to his wedding
Although Mahinur Ozdemir pursued a political career in Belgium, she continued to maintain close ties with the country from which her grandparents emigrated half a century ago. In July 2010, she married lawyer Rahmi Goktas, parliamentary attaché of a Turkish AKP deputy, the Islamo-conservative party founded by Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He who is then only Prime Minister, but already considered as the most powerful man in the country, is invited to the wedding in Turkey. Several personalities of the MHP, a far right nationalist party, are also on the guest list.
In Belgium, the right is unleashing itself against the young woman, described as the “Trojan horse” of political Islam in Europe. He is also said to be close to the violent nationalist ideology of the Grey Wolves, a xenophobic Turkish movement with ramifications in Europe, because his father was a director of the Turkish Cultural Association, the local branch of the organization in Schaerbeek.
