Twitter user apologizes for Gülen ‘traitor’ insult, blames politicians


Date posted: May 5, 2015

MAHMUT KURNAZ / ISTANBUL

Nuray A., who called Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen a “traitor” in a Twitter post, told a court on Tuesday that she only used the expression after first hearing politicians use the word against Gülen, and apologized for imitating them.

Nuray A. posted a tweet that read “Dajjal Fetoş [Fethullah Gülen], I no longer want to see this man, please do not post about him. I don’t have the stomach to see pictures of this traitor anymore.” Lawyers representing Gülen filed a complaint against Nuray A. with the Bakırköy Public Prosecutor’s Office on the grounds that she had violated their client’s personal rights.

The first hearing in the insult case was held at the Bakırköy 48th Criminal Court of First Instance in İstanbul on Tuesday. Nuray A. apologized in court for her tweet and defended her behavior. “Because our political leaders use insulting words, I also used such a word [traitor] under the influence of the current political atmosphere in the country. I do not know the content of the expressions [I used against Gülen]. I apologize for this,” she said.

The court has set the next hearing in the case for July 7.

Source: Today's Zaman , May 05, 2015

Tags: | | |


Related News

Turkey and the “forgotten” Zaman journalists in jail

Two years of the seizure of his newspaper and his sacking, the former bureau chief of Zaman newspaper in Brussels, Selçuk Gültasli, visited the EFJ-IFJ headquarter to deliver a special briefing on “the desperate situation of Zaman journalists and media workers in jail” in Turkey.

Wiretapped recordings erased on orders of new police chief

Earlier this year, claims emerged in the media that police officials in the Diyarbakır Police Department who are members of the Hizmet movement carried out a number of illegal wiretaps since 2008. The prosecutor, unconvinced by the police department’s response, began to examine the circumstances surrounding the whereabouts of the recordings. He questioned several police officers from the department and found that the recordings had been erased on the order of Police Chief Halis Böğürcü, who was appointed head of the Diyarbakır Police Department in early January.

‘Selam: Bahara Yolculuk’: a true story on the big screen

ALİ KOCA / ISTANBUL The 2013 Turkish movie “selam” (Greeting) told the stories of volunteers who embraced humanity outside Turkey’s borders; it was a movie that was appreciated not for its cinematic qualities, but for the sake of the beloved memories of those pioneers who went to territories they knew very little about to open […]

Once They were Brothers – Bir Zamanlar Kardeştiler

Kanter himself has faced legitimate threats from Erdoğan’s government. In 2017, Kanter escaped Turkish agents in Indonesia while working at a basketball camp for his foundation. He was detained in Romania for several hours and Turkish authorities had already cancelled his passport, making him a stateless man. Eventually, he was able to return to the United States, but not without a Turkish arrest warrant and a four-year prison sentence.

Toward the ‘Mubarak model’

As Turkey’s all-inclusive civil society organization, the Hizmet movement, which has always advocated human rights and freedom, adopted democracy, worked to make the state more transparent and accountable, supported Turkey’s accession to the EU and its integration into the world, has become a target.

Predictability in Erdoğan’s Turkey

The most significant damage beleaguered Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has inflicted on Turkey in a frantic effort to rescue himself, his children and close associates from legal troubles amid massive corruption, money laundering and illegal land-zoning deals was a blow to the “credibility” of Turkey and “predictability” in its political and economic environment.

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

Dutch, German intelligence agencies uncover Turkish kidnapping, murder plots

Turkey’s MGK says discussed organizations threatening national security

Turkish PM admits did not know identity of putschists when he blamed Gülen movement

Turkish Olympiad students visit top level gov’t officials in Ankara

Gülen appeals for steadfastness against gov’t ban on prep schools [in Turkey]

HRW: Prosecutions of alleged followers of Gülen Movement lack of evidence of criminal activity

Canada grants asylum to eight Gulenists under UN protection in Mongolia

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News