AK Party provincial board member resigns after insults
Date posted: February 24, 2014
İSTANBUL
Ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) İzmir provincial board member Emine Yenen has resigned from the party after being subjected to insults and discriminatory treatment by party members, Turkish news sources reported on Monday.
“At first there was the alienation and isolation of those labeled as ‘Gülenists’ within the [AK] Party. Then, we started to be labeled as members of a terrorist organization, and ‘hashashin.’ It had come to push and shove in the party. The accusations had reached an unacceptable level,” said Yenen.
Hashashins were hash-smoking hitmen who committed assassinations in the 11th century, giving rise to the English word “assassin.” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used the term in public last month in a thinly veiled reference to members of the Hizmet movement, which is inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
“For my own self-respect I resigned from my position and from the party,” said Yenen, who is a doctor and a member of the Aegean International Health Federation (ESAFED) and is known for her volunteer work in several African countries.
After all, it is not difficult to understand that the reasons pushing so many people so far from home have been a love of service and a love of their own country. During the course of my travels, I also had the chance to meet a few of the teachers dedicated to their service and to teaching in these schools. Most of them had sacrificed some of their own opportunities so that they could simply contribute to the schools at which they are working.
Minister’s remarks on Gülen cause AK Party members to resign
“The reason we have decided to quit is the defamation campaign launched against the Hizmet movement and its moral leader, Gülen, after the Dec. 17 operation that has occupied the [country’s] agenda for the last month,” Kara said, adding that the ugly allegations and defamation campaign against Gülen have offended their consciences.
Academic freedom at universities under growing threat
Süleyman Yaşar, a former columnist at the Sabah daily who has a broad vision regarding the economic policy of the current government, was fired from the outlet for not criticizing the Hizmet movement [the faith-based organization inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen]
Gov’t targets Hizmet to distract attention from corruption, says director
Demirkubuz believes that all the “good things” that the government did prior to the 2010 referendum were to guarantee its position, rather than celebrating the rule of law and justice, as evidenced by the fact that the prosecutors who were called heroes yesterday are called traitors today. Demirkubuz urged society to go through an exercise of self-criticism in terms of the preference for power over freedoms.
Fethullah Gulen — A view from Israel
A Muslim religious leader, Fethullah Gulen, is daily in the news, as Turkish president Erdogan accuses him of plotting the recent coup, We are so used to Muslim clerics being or being considered terrorists that we give the matter little thought. And yet, the recent crackdown in Turkey on Gulen’s movement should be of grave concern to anyone who cares about the Middle East, about Islam, and about religion.
Will the military take up arms against Gülen supporters?
In modern states, again, elected governments will be the final authority to decide about external threat perceptions after compiling input from related institutions, including the military.
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