Pro-AKP Lobbying Group Women’s Branch Attends Millî Görüş Iftar

The women’s branch of a pro-AKP lob­by­ing orga­ni­za­tion in the UK attend­ed an April Ramadan fast-break­ing cer­e­mo­ny (iftar) held by Mil­li Görüş, a transna­tion­al Turk­ish Islamist move­ment. Accord­ing to the UID Women tweet:

April 26, 2022: UID UK region­al wom­en’s branch­es attend­ed the IGMG Mil­li Görüş fast-break­ing din­ner as part of their NGO vis­its. [Trans­lat­ed by Google with edits]

Read the rest here.

The Union of Inter­na­tion­al Democ­rats (UID; for­mer­ly known as the Union of Euro­pean Turk­ish Democ­rats) describes itself as a vol­un­tary NGO  found­ed in 2004 that oper­ates in sev­er­al Euro­pean coun­tries. Its aims include increas­ing the eco­nom­ic, polit­i­cal, and social activ­i­ties of Turks and “sis­ter com­mu­ni­ties” abroad with­out alien­at­ing their iden­ti­ties and val­ues and com­bat­ting Islam­o­pho­bia. Ger­man media has described it as a lob­by­ing group for Pres­i­dent Erdoğan and his AKP that empha­sizes Turk­ish val­ues and cus­toms. The Ger­man Office for the Pro­tec­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion mon­i­tors the UID, describ­ing it as “nation­al­ist” and incom­pat­i­ble with Germany’s free demo­c­ra­t­ic order.

Islamis­che Gemein­schaft Mil­lî Görüş (IGMG) is the Ger­man branch of Mil­lî Görüş, a Turk­ish reli­gious and polit­i­cal move­ment found­ed by Necmet­tin Erbakan, Erdoğan’s polit­i­cal men­tor, which has called for an end to the sec­u­lar regime in Turkey. The GIOR has report­ed that the Ger­man gov­ern­ment is assert­ing that Pres­i­dent Erdoğan’s AKP par­ty has inten­si­fied its rela­tions with Mil­lî Görüş in Germany.