Date posted: December 11, 2014

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) strongly criticized and denied recent remarks from Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who alleged that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the so-called parallel structure are “working together,” saying the allegation is baseless slander directed at the [Hizmet] movement.

The parallel structure is a term that is being used by the government to refer to the faith-based Hizmet movement inspired by the teachings of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Davutoğlu, who spoke to reporters on his way back to Turkey from Poland on Tuesday, had said that his government knows “who is working with whom,” adding that it has documents of meetings between the PKK and the “parallel structure.”

The GYV released a written statement on Thursday to respond to the allegations directed at the Hizmet movement by pro-government circles. In the statement it says that whenever unlawful deeds or government corruption arrive on the public agenda, ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officials attempt to direct attention to the Hizmet movement via “imaginary and unreasonable accusations that become more intense each time.”

The statement said the latest example of such accusations was made by Davutoğlu, who attempted to link the Hizmet movement with the outlawed PKK organization.

“Instead of making a civil society movement a target for masses with such a serious claim, the state authorities should put a judicial mechanism in place to prove its accusations. As it is understood, the esteemed prime minister preferred to be a part of this ugly plan by occupying the public with such baseless claims without having sufficient information or documents.”

Reminding that the police officers, who conducted the operations against the Kurdistan Communities’ Union (KCK) — an umbrella network that includes the terrorist PKK, were arrested as these officers were alleged being close to the movement in the last few months, the GYV stated that “claiming also that the Hizmet is cooperating with the PKK is nothing more than reversing all the truths.”

Stating that former Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself had stated that the details from the secret Oslo talks between Turkish intelligence officials and members of the terrorist PKK in 2011 were leaked to the press by the PKK, the GYV stated that this turned out to be the Hizmet movement following the Dec. 17 corruption scandal, which it defined as another example of slander that the movement was exposed to at the hands of the Turkish government.

Source: Today's Zaman , December 11, 2014

Tags: Defamation of Hizmet | Kurdish Issue | PKK | Turkey |