We may become lost in the details if we examine one by one the MİT, Internet and Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) laws, which were included in omnibus laws and passed hastily in Parliament.
But if we look at the bigger picture, we can see that the government is preparing the infrastructure for a new legal process. This infrastructure is being constructed on a pot stand. If any of the four legs of this stand are missing, the system which they [the government] want to establish will not function. All this legislation suggests one thing: The government is establishing the legal basis for an operation against the community [Hizmet movement]. Even though the government has already removed from duty thousands of people, including police officers and members of the judiciary, it would have difficulties persuading “civil servants” to launch an operation against the community. The community is also aware of this. They [Hizmet members] said they believe ordinary civil servants would not take part in a legal process against the community. And as the government is also aware of this fact, it is now preparing the legal infrastructure to carry out a problem-free operation against the community.
General assumption is that Erdogan is indeed playing a cynical game with the Gulen issue, and also involving the United States in this, in a populist effort aimed at his own constituency in the lead-up to the presidential elections in August, where he is expected to run.
GYV: Hard-won democratic gains sacrificed for short-term interests
The move to seek the extradition of Fethullah Gülen using irrational justifications, the pressures on those businesspeople who sympathize with the Hizmet movement and the boycotts and sufferings that came in the wake of Erdoğan’s threat, “Do not given them [the Hizmet movement] even a single drop of water,” are the sort of developments unseen even during coup eras.
Turkish educator says Demirel stood with Turkish schools abroad
Turkish educator Süleyman Alptekin has said that Turkey’s ninth president, Süleyman Demirel, who died on Wednesday at the age of 90, won people’s hearts with his open support for Turkish educators and Turkish schools abroad inspired by the views of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Alptekin was flown back to the country in Demirel’s plane after being seriously injured in an accident in Bangladesh in 1997.
Free speech groups condemn Turkey’s closure of 29 publishers after failed coup
Jo Glanville, director of English PEN, said: “The coup posed a serious threat to the Turkish state, but the closing down of publishers, alongside the mass sackings, detentions, arrests and allegations of torture, will have a grave impact on democracy. The crackdown on freedom of expression was already a continuing concern. The coup now appears to be an opportunity for Erdoğan to purge Turkey of his opponents.
US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee: Charges against Gülen not credible
US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Dana Rohrabacher said during a hearing titled “Turkey after the July Coup Attempt” in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that the Turkish government’s claims against a US-based Turkish scholar for masterminding the July 15 coup attempt lack substantial evidence and were not credible.
Turkish gov’t profiling went on until 2013, report claims
The Turkish government profiled a large number of individuals whom it believed to be followers of certain religious and faith-based groups and monitored their activities up until 2013, a Turkish daily reported on Monday. According to the report, the profiling of individuals did not end in 2010 as previously claimed, but it continued between 2011 […]
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