When asked about the issue of Erdoğan’s survival, [CHP Istanbul deputy] Erdoğdu said: “The upcoming presidential election [which is scheduled for Aug. 10] is not the main part of this struggle. He might be elected president and elude the graft investigation. What about his son Bilal and other family members? How can they escape an investigation? The main battle is between Erdoğan and the Hizmet movement. That is why Erdoğan talks about eliminating the movement. He considers the matter a fight for survival.”
When the graft allegations first surfaced on Dec. 17 of last year, the government and its media did everything to undermine the reputation of the Hizmet movement. Even AK Party deputies who resigned because of increasingly anti-democratic practices became targets. The government’s ambition to finish off the Hizmet movement is still continuing, and Erdoğan has pledged to eliminate the movement.
Excerpted from the interview published on Today’s Zaman, 26 July 2014, Saturday
Human Rights Watch: People being tortured, abducted in post-coup Turkey
People detained after the last year’s failed putsch have been subject to torture in police custody while several others were abducted outside detention facilities, according to a recent report by the Human Rights Watch. The New York-based watchdog documented human rights abuses occurred between March and August 2017 in its 43-page report, “In Custody: Police Torture and Abductions in Turkey.”
Unaffected by tension, TUSKON promotes Turkish economy
The Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) has had its share of these provocative media reports. Regarding the recent media reports criticizing TUSKON’s lobbying efforts for Turkish firms abroad, TUSKON President Rıza Nur Meral told Sunday’s Zaman that allegations against TUSKON “do not make sense” and that the confederation has always supported Turkish businessmen who want to branch out into global markets. “We will continue our support [for Turkish entrepreneurs],” Meral added.
A House Divided: Civil Society and Democracy in Turkey
I am of the firm opinion that Hizmet movement had been practically the core civilizing, and transformative engine for strong Turkish civil society in this modern age. The movement has had, without any doubt, facilitated and consolidated Turkey’s strong civil society and democracy.
Desmond Tutu commends Gulen inspired organization
The Turquoise Harmony Institute, an organization inspired by the philosophies and teachings of Fethullah Gulen that promotes peace, dialogue and tolerance hosted its 7th annual Ubuntu Lecture and Peace and Dialogue Awards Ceremony on the 30th of April in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Turkish Cultural Center presents ‘Love is a Verb’
“Love is a Verb” is a film examining a social movement of Sufi-inspired Muslims that began in Turkey in the 1960s and now reaches across the globe. The group is called Hizmet – the Turkish word for service – or The Gulen Movement, after its inspiration, leader and beloved teacher Fethullah Gulen – a man Time Magazine named as one of the most influential leaders in the world in 2013.
Turkey as a “serial” human rights derogator
The past couple of months have been tumultuous in Turkey. In short order, an ill-conceived military coup was followed by popular mass protest, the quick return of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to power, and a wave of repression ranging from military and judicial purges, to state restrictions on a panoply of basic human rights protections, to allegations of “widespread human rights abuses” by state actors.
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