An İstanbul-based lawyer filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday against Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, with allegations such as the establishment of a criminal organization, organizing an attempt to overthrow the government, organized fraud and abuse of duty as a civil servant.
Lawyer Hüdaverdi Yıldırım submitted a petition to the İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office in which he accused Gülen of being behind the corruption scandal that came to public attention on Dec. 17 of last year. Claiming that the graft probe is not about corruption and bribery but about overthrowing a legitimate government, Yıldırım argued that those who emphasize the independence of the judiciary are actually asking for privileged status for the ideology of their community — by which Yıldırım meant the Hizmet movement.
Yıldırım also claimed that Gülen is guilty of using his influence over public prosecutors to make them target the government.
The Hizmet movement is a religious and social movement that is inspired by the teaching of US-based scholar Gülen.
Daily Sabah rehashes decades-old, refuted claims against Gülen
In what is seen as a smear campaign against Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, the pro-Erdoğan English-language Daily Sabah has rehashed old and refuted claims that Gülen is somehow linked to a 2006 attack on the Turkish Council of State by Alparslan Arslan, a lawyer who carried out the armed assault.
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.
Mother of 2 detained while visiting jailed husband during Eid holiday
42-year-old Ozen Alkan was detainedon Monday, June 26 while she was visiting her husband, already under arrest over his alleged links to the Gulen movement. It was the second day of Muslim festival of Eid-Al-Fitr on Monday.
Mother of 5 children abandoned in parking lot released on high bail
A Turkish court on Monday released a housewife, a mother of five whose children were abandoned in a parking lot after her detention, on TL 50,000 bail. This is a high figure in a country where the minimum wage is approximately TL 1,300. The woman will be put behind bars again if she fails to pay the bail within seven days.
Erdoğan: both asset and liability for AKP
“Very few people in Turkey could deny that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government under the leadership of Tayyip Erdoğan has made a tremendous and positive transformation in the country. Now, he is on it again with his insistence on trying to close down tutorial centers that belong to the private sector. Everybody knows that with this he is trying to punish the Hizmet movement, which has resisted pledging absolute loyalty to him.
Erdoğan’s AKP runs out of steam, then what?
We are now in the midst of a system crisis with unprecedented dimensions and unforeseen consequences. Turkey’s fiercely embattled Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is betting whatever the country has gained over the past years on a game of prospects that will either lead to a downfall, or turn the stakes in such favor for himself so as to speed up his irresistible rise to untouchability.
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