Who could imagine that the government would join the coup-plotters one day? But this has come true — the government has finally staged a coup.
When its involvement in corruption and bribery became public, and that this seemed like the tip of an iceberg, the government thought that it must cover up the subsequent investigation, fearing that yet more investigations would be started — and so crushed the police force and the judiciary like a steamroller. All of a sudden, the government assigned the entire blame for the corruption to the Hizmet movement, which it had once considered an old friend and partner. This was not enough for the government, however; now, it seems to be preparing to accuse the Taraf newspaper, which in the past made influential reports of coup attempts, of producing fabricated news reports.
Another day, another mass arrest in Turkey. At least 13 journalists were taken into custody in predawn raids Monday morning, including Murat Sabuncu, the editor of Cumhuriyet, the country’s leading secular newspaper.
Government drags military into politics
There are now serious question marks over whether the government orchestrated the operations at TİB to libel Hizmet for wiretapping with the aim of diverting attention from the separate spying case under way in Ankara and saving those uniformed men from facing judicial scrutiny over charges of spying.
Q&A: Turkish Imam Fethullah Gulen
Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based imam who Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused of masterminding Friday’s failed coup, answered questions from The Wall Street Journal’s Jay Solomon via email on Sunday:
Frontal assault on free enterprise in Turkey: The case of prep-schools
Erdoğan fired a warning shot across the bow of the Hizmet movement, which operates some one-third of the more than 3,500 prep schools, hoping that the movement would fold under the pressure and shy away from criticizing the government on lingering corruption, the lack of bold reforms, the stalled EU membership process, the failed constitutional work, its intrusion in people’s ways of life and privacy, blunders in foreign policy and the weakened transparency and accountability in governance.
Academics, civil society call for freer, more diverse universities in new law
BURAK KILIÇ / HASAN KARALI, İSTANBUL Participants of a meeting hosted by the Zaman daily have called on the Higher Education Board (YÖK) to grant universities broader freedoms instead of the existing centralized structure under a new YÖK Law. The current YÖK Law is considered outdated and carries traces of former coups as it was […]
Turkey Should Protect All Prisoners from Pandemic
Terrorism may sound like the gravest of offenses, but in Turkey, the government misuses the charge for political ends. Many inmates are placed in lengthy pretrial detention or sentenced without evidence.
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