User:HalilDeligoz/Social support and solidarity waqf

Social Support and Solidarity Waqf (Sosyal Yardımlaşma ve Dayanışma Vakfı in Turkish) is a type of waqf (vakıf, in Turkish) which is designed and implemented by the state to provide social supports and social services for the lower classes of the society. The model is rooted in the history of the original waqf idea in the Islamic states.

History
The Social Support and Solidarity Waqfs together with the Encouragement of Social Assistance and Solidarity Fund to finance the waqfs was established in 1986 during the premiership of the liberal politician, Turgut Özal.

Debates
The foundation of the vakıfs was controversial at its beginning. During this debates in the parliament, the legislators of the center-right Motherland Party (Anavatan Partisi – ANAP) proposed that the waqf institution was a proper choice to serve serve as a social-justice mechanism for the poor, the needy, the orphans and the patients who needed some kind of provisional direct support until the time when the whole population is provided with social security. The ANAP claimed that they would also bring together the central administration, local administration and civil society. The waqf was regarded as a legacy of the Turkish-Islamic tradition. The Populist Party (Halkçı Parti) opposed the idea mainly for two reasons: first, it would lead to dependency of a population without touching the roots of the problem. Furthermore, the waqf -an institution with Islamic connotations- was contradictory with the principles of the laic Constitution. However ANAP leader Özal was successful in securing a right-wing coalition with the Nationalist Democracy Party (Milliyetçi Demokrasi Partisi) to pass the legislation.

Recent debates included the use of the waqfs for political purposes. A provincial governor distributing white goods under his mandate in 2009, in the Tunceli province, ahead of the local elections became widely controversial. The governor was tried for his act and convicted for seven months of punishment, though it was delayed.