Hizmet News

Turkish Gov’t media targets exiled journalists, their lives at risk

Following President Erdoğan’s statement that no country is safe for Gülen movement sympathizers, the pro-AKP media targeted exiled journalists in the US and Europe on Monday. Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization has been tasked with locating, arresting and even killing military officers who fled Turkey after allegedly taking part in a failed coup attempt in July, according a story in the Vatan daily on Aug. 30.

Tortured detainee would choose 50 years in prison over return to custody in Turkey

“I looked for a lawyer for days, but I failed. None of the lawyers agreed to defend my husband. The bar association will assign a lawyer. I feel so helpless. My husband is being tortured. I fear for his life and mental health. Please help me!”

Debunking The Gülen-Erdoğan Relationship

Yes, at one time, there had been rapprochement and mutual support, but reality and history show that such an alliance has long been overstated. The truth is, Erdoğan and Gülen only came together when Erdoğan’s stated goals reflected deeply held beliefs by Gülen. As is often the case, perception is mistaken for reality. Gülen is not Erdoğan’s biggest threat, nor was he his chief ally.

Terrorism: Why Obama, Others Ignored Turkish President Erdogan

Turkish President Erdogan on Tuesday called on world leaders to fight against US based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen over what he (Erdogan) described as an act of terrorism orchestrated by Gulen against Turkey. Addressing Presidents and Prime Ministers of civilised regimes of the world at the 68th UN General Assembly, Erdogan demonstrated before his colleagues very high level of incapacitation and inability to stick to simple ratified conventions to which Turkey is signatory.

Fethullah Gulen Calls Crackdown ‘Dark Pages’ in History - Responses to World Affairs Council of Philadelphia

In videotaped remarks to the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, Fethullah Gulen said the Turkish government is using the attempted coup to justify persecuting his followers, who he said are being “subjected to oppression and tyranny, molestation and unlawful acquisition of their private properties.

Can a Post-Coup Turkey Get Along with Europe?

None of this has stopped the government from undertaking a huge, self-destructive purge, with around 10,000 people arrested, 100,000 people dismissed, and the seizure of assets of more than $4 billion, numbers that worry not just human rights activists but foreign investors as well. The government’s fury is understandable but it should distinguish between those who took part in the coup and those who simply belonged to the Gulen movement.

Turkey’s Changing Freedom Deficit

Erdoğan’s government is by no means the first to compel Turkish citizens to hide their preferences and beliefs. Under the secular governments that ruled Turkey from the 1920s to 1950, and to some extent until 2002, pious Turks seeking advancement in government, the military, and even commerce had to downplay their religiosity and avoid signaling approval of political Islam.

News

Turkish Gov’t media targets exiled journalists, their lives at risk

Tortured detainee would choose 50 years in prison over return to custody in Turkey

Turkish minister’s leaked email shows trustees to Gulen affliated organizations not appointed by courts

Turkish minister’s leaked emails show pro-gov’t figure has eye on Gülen-linked dormitory

Erdoğan Is Destroying Turkey’s Hopes for Democracy

Did Turkey Really Save Democracy On July 15?

Opinions

Turkey After the July Coup Attempt – Alan Makovsky’s testimony before Committee on Foreign Affairs

The vastness and persistence of the purge of the civil service, arrests of journalists, and closure of media outlets—many seemingly having nothing whatsoever to do with the exiled Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen or his Gülenist movement that the Turkish government blames for the coup attempt.

Debunking The Gülen-Erdoğan Relationship

Turkey’s Erdogan Is Already Making the Most of His ‘Gift From Heaven’ After Coup Attempt

Turkey’s Opposition Fails a Critical Test: To Challenge Erdogan

Turkey- the state versus the people

Erdogan: A saint elsewhere, outside Turkey’s shores?

Interviews

Fethullah Gulen talking about Turkey’s failed coup: Responses to Philadelphia World Affairs Council

Right now, all critical voices are silenced in Turkey and only the voice of those in power is heard. Consequently both Turkish people and outside observers are misled. The misperception about the coup continues because there is only one voice. The government interprets everything according to their calculations. They are using this event to express the antipathy they already had against Hizmet movement. The coup attempt is serving to justify their plans to persecute Hizmet movement.

Fethullah Gülen: ‘I don’t have any regrets’

Fetullah Gülen, the preferred enemy – Interview

Vocal Europe: Monday Talk on Gulen Movement and Recent Coup Attempt in Turkey

Fethullah Gulen Talked to Kurdish TV on Kurds, human rights and Erdogan

Fethullah Gulen on ‘GPS’: Failed Turkey coup looked ‘like a Hollywood movie’

Editors' Picks

Turkish minister's leaked email shows trustees to Gulen affliated organizations not appointed by courts

In the email Ahmet Özal says: “Definitely, trustees will be appointed to Turgut Özal University. … I think the esteemed president will also be happy if I cleanse Turgut Özal University [of Gülen sympathizers] and end the association between that community and my father’s name. I would be very pleased if you could convey this issue to the president [Erdogan] and help me get his support and approval.”

Turkey After the July Coup Attempt - Alan Makovsky's testimony before Committee on Foreign Affairs

Kurdish theologian: Gülen’s ideas best antidote to ISIL

Jafar Gwani, an Islamic theologian based in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, has said the ideas of Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic preacher who lives in self-imposed exile in the US, are the best antidote in the fight against the ideology of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Why Erdogan Is Soft On ISIS

Turkey's government and the media that support it have an odd attitude when it comes to violent acts carried out by ISIS: It's as if the "cultural/ideological dialects" of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government somehow malfunction. The government is politically accountable if ISIS actions do not stop in Turkey. Trying to cover this up with nonsense like "ISIS is the same as PKK and the Gülenists" only increases this accountability.

As Gulen movement contracts in Africa, worry over who will fill the vacuum

Abdallah Kheri, who in Kenya heads the Islamic Research and Education Trust, worries that shuttering Gulen schools and other institutions could leave a vacuum that the so-called Islamic State will seek to fill. “Closing down the institutions would definitely grant gains to the fundamentalists,” he said. In Kenya, the Rev. Wilybard Lagho, Mombasa Roman Catholic diocese vicar general, said he would lament the demise of Gulen schools.

Gülen condemns ISIL atrocities in ads in leading US newspapers

In the ads, which appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, Gülen said the actions of ISIL -- referred to in the ad as ISIS, another name it goes by -- are a “disgrace to the faith they proclaim and crimes against humanity.”