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.
Fresh resignation in Turkey’s ruling AKP over graft scandal
Çetin also denied that he had spoken about resigning with Gülen, adding that the U.S.-based scholar did not give orders to anyone. “He does not interfere with anyone’s preferences. You only take advise and he gives his personal opinion. He has actually persuaded me to stay until today,” the resigned deputy said.
Turkey could find itself facing hefty legal bill for mass purges
In 2006, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Turkish citizen Osman Murat Ulke, who refused to perform compulsory military service as an act of civil disobedience, had been subjected to “civil death” due to the numerous prosecutions he faced after his original jail sentence. Ulke’s expulsion from his profession and the prospect of an interminable series of convictions, which forced him into hiding, constituted a “disproportionate” punishment, the court said.
The irrationality of demanding Turkish schools abroad be shut down
Since last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been constantly “advising” his foreign counterparts to shut down the Hizmet schools in their countries.
We the pious did not feel for the suffering of the Kurds
There’s even a television channel named “Dunya TV” founded by Fethullah Gulen’s followers and it broadcasts in Kurdish. An attorney in our Abant Meeting said he’s had some suspicions about our sincerity but he said the atmosphere in the meeting has persuaded him.
Gülen’s German collaborator, or the German slap?
Is President Gauck the German controlling agent for the German cell of this merciless terrorist organization? Did President Gauck make that speech –unusually bold [and honest] for a visiting dignitary – because he, too, is being held hostage to blackmail by the Gülenists? Did the Turkish “parallel state” tap Mr. Gauck’s phones and blackmail him? Or did Mr. Gauck say what he said because he had been paid by Lufthansa which, according to Mr. Erdoğan’s men, was one the foreign conspirators behind the Gezi Park protests?
Jews should speak up for Hizmet
When we think of Hizmet, Jews conscious of our own history either can say, “There but for the grace of God go we,” or we can think of Rabbi Hillel: “If we are only for ourselves, what are we? And if now, when?”
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