Threat to destroy the Hizmet Movement a hate crime

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statements targeting the Hizmet movement saying “either they will accept the presence of this state or they will disappear” is a clear hate crime, prosecutable at the Hague.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statements targeting the Hizmet movement saying “either they will accept the presence of this state or they will disappear” is a clear hate crime, prosecutable at the Hague.


Date posted: April 30, 2015

ERKAN ACAR

Erdoğan’s harsh attacks on the Hizmet movement, consisting of followers and sympathizers of Fethullah Gülen, reached a summit when he stated on Tuesday, “from A to Z everyone in this organization needs to pay the price. Either they will accept the presence of this state or they will disappear.”

Marmara University professor and constitutional law expert İbrahim Kaboğlu slammed the rhetoric as a clear hate crime. “Such radical statements and threats are definitely a hate crime. It is not the first.” His sentiments were shared by criminal law expert and President of the Human Rights Agenda, Prof. Günal Kurşun. “Erdoğan’s statements were a hate crime. The vengeful statements are increasing by the day. I would hope that they would not reach to the point of an act of genocide.” He added that Turkey has yet to even face up to past killings and massacres.

Prof Sami Karahan from the Marmara University Law Faculty elaborated on the severe and broad-based implications of Erdoğan’s statements. “Individuals are being fired from TÜBİTAK. Schools are being taken over. Mobile operator AVEA is refusing to serve individuals of a certain point of view. Bank Asya is being overhauled. Soon the seizure of assets will follow. The effects of the destruction policy is being down to the base of society. Such matters are a concern for The Hague.”

Prof Karahan argued that the President’s statements may even be regarded as an act of genocide per the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court’s sixth clause, which states the following:

“For the purpose of this Statute, “genocide” means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

He further added “the statements [of Erdoğan] can be prosecuted in the Hague.” The Marmara University law professor expressed that Erdoğan should have instead preferred to say “everyone has to abide by the constitution,” adding that the people have the right to challenge any violations of the constitution.

Source: BGNNews , April 30, 2015


Related News

Fethullah Gulen’s brother detained in Erdogan’s ongoing crackdown after coup

One of the brothers of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, Kutbettin, has been detained in the western province of İzmir. More than 100,000 people have been purged from state bodies, 32,000 arrested since the coup attempt. Arrestees include journalists, judges, prosecutors, police and military officers, academics, governors and even a comedian.

Gülen urges patience over prep schools row

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen expressed unhappiness over government [in Turkey] plans to abolish educational institutions that assist high school students to prepare for the national university admission examination and urged people to be patient in the face of this move, which is interpreted as a blow to education in the country.

The Hizmet movement, politics and the AKP

Hizmet cannot establish a political party because politics all over the world are mostly based on contention, challenge, belittling opponents and division. Forming a political party would harm the Hizmet movement but similar to Rumi’s compass, it endeavors to establish critically constructive contact with every single human being on the planet. Its main mission is to build bridges across cultures, communities, religions and so on.

Enes Kanter – A Dervish in the NBA

The first time I went to Oklahoma City, I was wondering, how am I going to do this? I’m a Muslim player, I pray 5 times a day, fast, eat halal food. So when I got to OKC, I told the chefs, the organization, I’m a Muslim, I need to do this, this, this. They were so respectful.

Mothers, fathers crying and praying due to extensive victimization

Mothers cried out and made objections wherever state brutality was observed. This noble and peaceful attitude was not only displayed at the education institutions affiliated with the Hizmet movement.

Erdogan purge far worse than the McCarthy era

What is happening in Turkey right now makes the McCarthy era in the US look like a picnic. When communists were targeted under McCarthyism they were blacklisted; hundreds were jailed, and many were compelled to leave the country. In Turkey it is not communists, but Gulenists. Anyone remotely associated with the Gulen movement is being rounded up and jailed – not by the hundreds, but by the tens of thousands.

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

New book looks closer into Hizmet Movement with questions, answers

UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing on Gülen and the Hizmet Movement

Who are these pro-Erdogan mobs who even beheaded a soldier?

Turkish school students raises pocket moneys to buy stoves for refugees

“1915” by Prof. Ihsan Yilmaz (1)

“The Broken Jug” now in the languages of the world

Al-Azhar professor: Gülen courageously resists radicalism

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News