Collective punishment [of Hizmet movement]

Ali Bulaç
Ali Bulaç


Date posted: March 17, 2014

ALİ BULAÇ

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is preparing for a comprehensive crackdown.

If he can secure sufficient electoral support at the local polls slated for March 30, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will not only purge members of the Hizmet movement from the bureaucracy but will also try to halt its activities in the media, finance, education and other sectors. AK Party İstanbul deputy Burhan Kuzu announced he has submitted to the prime minister a list of 2,000 people who will be detained.

Those who suggest that members of the Hizmet movement must be purged from public institutions justify their position by saying members of the movement receive their orders from their leader and not from their superiors. However, I should note that the problem is not about the failure of the members of the Hizmet movement to obey orders from their superiors in the public service but about the claim that the prosecutors and police chiefs who conducted the graft and bribery investigation are members of the Hizmet movement — a claim which has yet to be proven. Still, I will try to critically discuss relations between the Hizmet movement (and other religious communities) and the bureaucracy.

First, any public servant who is a member of a religious community is required to obey orders from his/her superior. If a public servant attempts to use the public resources and authorities available to him/her to promote the interests of his/her own religious community, then this creates problems.

Second, a community with a certain political ideology may engage in political activity or try to influence political processes within a well-defined sphere. But if it tries to manipulate the bureaucracy for political gains, this indicates a problematic approach as this means “unfair competition” against other communities or groups and abuse of powers and resources of the executive branch of the state, which is accountable to the public for its actions.

You may find the first argument “problematic” and the second “rightful.” Indeed, those who voice these objections tend to portray the Turkish Republic as a state free from any ideologies or value judgments, which is clearly not the case. Given its historical roots, centuries-old experience and modern version, the state sees itself as a religious community per se. In the Ottoman Empire, the dynasty was the possessor of the country or the estate and it was a small community of familial and blood relations. When the Turkish Republic was established, this dynasty was purged and replaced with a community of founding fathers. In this tradition, a specific community or group in the bureaucracy tends to see itself as the community or potential possessor — owner even — of the state. The presence of a community within the state is even perceived as security.

Given the political tradition from which it came — Milli Görüş (National View), its founding members, the fashion in which senior politicians communicate with each other and its responses to the outside world, the AK Party gives the impression of being a “community” in the final analysis. Indeed, Erdoğan referred to President Abdullah Gül as his “brother” when he nominated him for the presidency. “Our ties go beyond brotherly relationship,” they are quick to note when referring to a potential competition in the future. These reactions do not fall into the category of “individual” relations which are considered normal in liberal democracies.

Furthermore, it must be noted that when certain public servants are being purged on charges of being members of a specific community, we see them being replaced with members of other communities. This problem will continue to haunt us unless we make our state one that is built on justice.

Here is a more important problem: Suppose a bureaucrat who is a member of a specific community fails to comply with the orders of his/her superiors. In this case, the political authority is of course entitled to remove that bureaucrat from office under administrative law. But to use the failure of several — dozens — of bureaucrats to comply with orders as a pretext for purging thousands of bureaucrats in all public institutions and penalizing many trade firms and organizations would be to collectively punish individual offenses.

Source: Todays Zaman , March 17, 2014


Related News

Say What? Ankara Mayor Blames Gulenists for Shaking Turkey With an Earthquake

No joke: Ankara’s mayor suggests that an earthquake that has recently hit Turkey’s northwest might have been caused by the followers of cleric Fethulah Gulen.

False reports on Bank Asya breach laws

Earlier reports in the Turkish media had claimed that the government had mulled over a comprehensive investigation into Bank Asya following an ongoing corruption and bribery case. The papers cited the Hizmet movement — with which Bank Asya is affiliated — as the hand behind the police operations into persons close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The same reports implied a retaliatory attack on Bank Asya over alleged abuses within the bank.

Hizmet and March 30 elections: What happened? (2)

The Hizmet movement, a fairly religious group that expresses a tendency for solidarity among its members, who are self-confident, well-educated and active in different parts of the world, had alienated itself in the eyes of religious people as well as regular people. Such a perception had emerged as a result of the level of education they have attained and their presence abroad.

How come a 25 days old BABY could be a THREAT to the national security?

I was told that [Turkish Consulate] may issue a 3 months temporary passport which we can only use it to get back to Turkey. To ensure that they also labeled an extra note on the passport which says can only be used to return to Turkey.

Turkish PM Erdoğan lashes out at Gülen as the head of ‘neo-Ergenekon’

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stepped up his fiery rhetoric against his ally-turned-nemesis, the Gülen movement, criticizing U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen as the leader of “neo-Ergenekon.”

Retired on disability, former bomb disposal expert kept in jail for a month over Gülen links

Bilal Konakçı, a former bomb disposal expert for the İzmir Police Department who was retired after he lost his right hand and both eyes while trying to dispose of a bomb in 2009, was detained on Dec. 20 over links to the faith-based Gülen movement, and his wife is worried about his health as authorities refuse to allow the family to contact him.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Coup attempt in 2016 was Erdoğan’s Reichstag fire

Hizmet and countering violent extremism

The work of peace

The Gülen Factor: Erdogan, the Coup, and the United States

MHP: Gov’t should not harass its citizens who open Turkish schools abroad

Turkish PM calls on Islamic scholar Gülen to return to Turkey

Kimse Yok Mu first to respond to call for Crimea

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News