Reporters Without Borders urges Turkey to rescind draconian state of emergency decrees

Two months after responding to a coup attempt by declaring a state of emergency, the Turkish government continues to target journalists, pluralism and freedom of information. RSF is today publishing a reportthat details the many abuses and urges the government to return to democratic principles.

Hate speech and respect for the sacred

Islam seeks to protect five major principles that are specified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and adopted in the modern world: religious freedom, the right to observe religious duties and the protection of this right; the right to life and its protection; the right to mental and physical health and its protection; the right to property and its protection; the right to marriage and reproduction and its protection.

Corruption investigation: Questions that will hound PM Erdoğan

Everyone is wondering now what is behind the corruption investigation, and the first “suspect” to come to many minds is the Islamist Gülen movement. Tensions between this group and the AKP have been rising over the years, and boiled over recently due to the prep-school issue – a matter that has received wide media coverage.

The Gülen movement denies this but the vitriol flying between daily Zaman, which is close to Gülen, and Yeni Şafak, which is staunchly pro-AKP, is enough to give one a sense of the bitter struggle involved.

Turkish intelligence staged a rocket attack on Erdoğan’s palace to rally public support

Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) appears to have staged a rocket attack on the palace of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan three days after a failed coup in order to bolster the perception that the threat of a putschist attempt was still alive and to rally public support for the government.

Hizmet rejects claims it is linked to graft probe, says democracy is antidote to chaos

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), whose honorary chairman is Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, has categorically rejected accusations that it is linked to the corruption and bribery investigation that has rocked Turkey for nearly a month, urging everyone to avoid language that only deepens the “dangerous polarization” in the country.

Zaman Editor-in-Chief: Turkish government no longer democratic

Ekrem Dumanlı was arrested on December 14, part of a series of coordinated raids by Turkish authorities against a number of prominent media figures, all facing charges of belonging to a terrorist “parallel organization.” The organization in question? Fethullah Gülen’s outlawed Hizmet movement.