… If the [Fethullah] Gülen movement were a small, ineffective community, the AKP would never have disturbed it. Or if the Gülen movement had acted in full cooperation with the government, such a conflict wouldn’t have occurred. But the Gülen movement has a specific mission. What is that mission?
They seek to obtain the pleasure of God by leading good religious lives and engaging in educational and social services. The AKP, on the other hand, wants to improve its political power and political services to earn prestige and thus become good religious people and earn the pleasure of God.
Naturally, the diverging paths have led to conflict. Such things have occurred in the past, and a typical example is the Battle of Siffin. An AKP supporter should answer this question: Which side was the “parallel structure” on in the Battle of Siffin?
Excerpted from the interview made with Mr. Akyol, published on Today’s Zaman, 09 June 2014, Monday
Davis: Moderate voices such as Gülen movement are sorely needed
“This is most unfortunate, as anyone who does the minutest amount of research would clearly see that [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] ISIS does not follow the teachings of Islam,” says Joyce Davis, speaking about the bigoted comments of Bill Maher, who simplistically identified ISIS with the religion of Islam on a TV show last week. Davis is president of the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg, part of the World Affairs Councils of America, based in Washington, D.C. She is the author of two books on Islam and has written extensively on international affairs and US foreign policy.
London-Based Turkish Academic To Run 10,000 Meters To Raise Fund For Purge Victims In Turkey
İsmail Sezgin, a London-based Turkish academic has tweeted on Tuesday that he will run a total of 10,000 meters in support of the families hit by an ongoing purge by the Turkish government. Releasing a statement on moneygiving.com, Sezgin said that he aims at raising a fund of 10 thousand pounds to help purge-victim families in Turkey.
Public ad budget unfairly allocated to pro-gov’t media
Separate sources have suggested that several public institutions prefer pro-government dailies and TV stations over other media, an initiative that follows Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s statements about “the opposition that cooperates with an international conspiracy seeking to topple the government.”
Turkey, ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ and ‘Titanic’
Questions to challenge the primary and unjustified premise: What judicial (or other) process determined that these corruption investigations were a coup attempt against the government? What proof or evidence do you have to support this most serious claim? What disciplinary process did you undertake to determine that the people that were purged were members and culprits of this ‘coup’? In the absence of evidence and disciplinary process how did you determine these people’s association with Hizmet? When is government corruption not a judicial coup? How can you have the right to unilaterally determine the intent and purpose of these ongoing judicial investigations when your government is implicated in them? If your government can purge over 7,000 police officers (and thereby affect and prevent these investigations) without evidence, due process or disciplinary procedure, do you not set a precedent for every future potentially corrupt government to follow?
THY passengers strongly criticize embargo on Today’s Zaman
Turkey’s flagship carrier Turkish Airlines began an embargo on Dec. 23, 2013 on the distribution of the newspapers Zaman, Today’s Zaman, Bugün and Ortadoğu to business class passengers on its planes, without providing an explanation. Other dailies are still being handed out on board.
Erdoğan isolates himself in power
Erdoğan is picky about journalists escorting him on board his official plane; he doesn’t like to see journalists asking annoying question around him anyway, but this time the criteria became really narrow. Umut Oran, Deputy Chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) asked the prime minister about his criteria, since Erdoğan excluded most popular papers like Hürriyet, Zaman, Posta, or critical ones like Sözcü, Cumhuriyet, Radikal, and whether the travel expenses of journalists from pro-government papers would be covered on the government budget.
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