The headline of this column belongs to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He said it during his party’s parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday.
The prime minister, who has directed harsh insults at the Hizmet movement and Fethullah Gülen in all the speeches he has made since the corruption investigation went public, continued to do so on Tuesday, too. He had previously called the Hizmet movement a “dirty organization,” “instrument of foreign powers,” “parallel organization” and “Hashishins.” On Tuesday, he defined the movement as the “last gang.” Saying that his government has fought against gangs, military juntas and tutelage as well as other deep powers, the prime minister added, “There will not be any obstacle in the way of democracy when this last gang becomes a thing of the past.” He also said his government managed to stop the “Dec. 17 coup attempt.” In addition, he accused Hizmet of spying and added, “The responsible figures and evidence [of a coup attempt] will soon be exposed.” The prime minister has put forward many claims since Dec. 17, but he has not provided any satisfactory evidence to back up these claims. I wonder how he will prove his allegations of spying.
Hate Speech and Beyond: Targeting the Gülen Movement in Turkey
If the element of hatred is detectable at first sight, the European Court of Human Rights defines such language as abuse of freedom of expression. In this regard, some of the language used by Prime Minister Erdoğan to describe the Gülen movement – i.e. “perverts”, “hashashins”, “traitors”, “spies”, “worse than Shiites”, “leeches” and “a terrorist organization” – do indeed constitute prima facie hate speech.
86-year-old Gülen-linked philanthropist arrested on terror (!) charges
Eighty-six-year-old businessman Celal Afşar was arrested on Thursday along with his daughter, son-in-law and two others in Niğde province as part of an investigation into the faith-based Gülen movement, the tr724 news website reported.
‘Parallel state’ and ‘theft of national will’
There is not a single piece of concrete evidence indicating that prosecutors and police officers had acted in contravention of laws and regulations in the investigation into the corruption claims that implicated some former Cabinet members and their sons. However, these public officials who performed their lawful duties in full compliance with the principles of transparency, accountability and equality — which are fundamental characteristics of the regimes that uphold the rule of law — were recklessly accused by the prime minister and his cronies of being the “parallel state.
Fethullah Gülen’s message to his sympathizers in the aftermath of the coup attempt
I hope that those who set their hearts on a cause will not loosen their hands about working on the world solidarity and universal human values, and they will continue on their way. I hope they do not get shaken by such storms, with Allah’s permission and help. Just like all the things happened until today had passed and became history, these latest incidents will pass and become history, with Allah’s permission.
Rounding up the ISIS collaborators, in Turkey and Kurdistan
As U.S., Iraqi and Iraqi Kurdish forces close in on Mosul, there is hope that the military campaign can force ISIS out of Iraqi territory. Of course, there are many questions still unresolved, for example, about how to pick up the pieces in Mosul.
Dangerous and unnecessary tension
MARKAR ESAYAN Turkey has been experiencing heated tension over the prep school issue for a while. And unfortunately, the discussion was taken out of the educational context and has become a political issue. The Taraf daily, in its recent reports and with the official documents it published, argued that the Justice and Development Party (AK […]
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