Police raid Gülen-inspired Samanyolu schools in Ankara

Riot police units accompanied police officers from the Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Bureau (KOM) during the raid on Samanyolu Schools in Ankara on Monday. (Photo: Cihan)
Riot police units accompanied police officers from the Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Bureau (KOM) during the raid on Samanyolu Schools in Ankara on Monday. (Photo: Cihan)


Date posted: September 21, 2015

EBUBEKİR ATMACA / ANKARA

In yet another government-orchestrated operation targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement, more than 60 police officers carried out raids on four different branches of the private Samanyolu schools in Ankara early on Monday.

iot police units accompanied police officers from the Anti-smuggling and Organized Crime Bureau during the raid, which took place in Ankara’s Yenimahalle district.

Officers started inspections after they were asked to present a search warrant by Adnan Şeker, the lawyer representing the Samanyolu schools.

An increasing number of schools inspired by the Gülen movement have been targeted by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) following a major investigation into graft that implicated President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other top AK Party figures, which was made public on Dec. 17, 2013. Then-Prime Minister Erdoğan accused the Gülen movement of instigating the operation in order to overthrow his government.

In May 2014, Erdoğan publicly advised AK Party supporters not to send their children to schools affiliated with the movement, vowing, “We will not even give water to them [the movement’s members].” He has also said he would carry out a “witch hunt” against anyone with links to the movement. Erdoğan has also ordered officials in AK Party-run municipalities to seize land and buildings belonging to the Gülen movement by any means necessary. The movement strongly rejects the allegations and no indictment or evidence has been brought against it.

Source: Today's Zaman , September 21, 2015

Tags: | | | |


Related News

Bank Asya says it weathers ‘stress test’, still strong

Turkish media say state-owned companies and institutional depositors loyal to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have withdrawn TL 4 billion ($1.79 billion), some 20 percent of the bank’s total deposits, over the last month to try to sink the lender. The government has declined to comment. Bank Asya’s chief executive Ahmet Beyaz said the bank’s founders included sympathizers of cleric Fethullah Gülen, who officials say is behind the corruption investigation posing one of the biggest challenges to Erdoğan’s 11-year rule. But he said the bank was not at risk.

Whistleblower says gov’t preparing to close down Gülen-inspired schools

A government whistleblower has claimed the government is preparing to shut down schools believed to be close to the Gülen movement, a faith-based grassroots social initiative inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, in Turkey on the pretext that the schools are not being properly administered.

Islamic scholar Gülen calls for calm among supporters

Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has called on his supporters to remain calm and be patient in the wake of rumors that Istanbul police were planning to start an operation to round up hundreds of people close to his movement. Gülen called for patience and calm among the relatives of those who are being probed or expecting probes against them, advising them to pray and read the Quran.

Anti-police operation is gov’t attempt to take revenge for graft probe

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has recently been engaged in a bitter fight with the Hizmet movement. This conflict intensified after Dec. 17, 2013, when a major graft operation targeting government ministers and connected businessmen became public. The prime minister claims the operation was orchestrated by the Hizmet movement in an effort to overthrow his government. However, he has not provided any evidence to prove this claim, and the movement denies the accusation.

Gulen Movement Educates Kurds, and not Everyone Is Happy

Nicolas Birch,  Turkey There is a studious silence in the basement floor of the Rose Pink Women’s Education and Mutual Aid Association in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast. In three classrooms, 70 12-year-old girls are hard at work studying for exams that will decide their secondary school future. Wearing headscarves that […]

Prep school debate [in Turkey] continues

According to Bugün columnist Adem Yavuz Arslan, some newspapers, such as Akit, use very harsh language against the Hizmet movement in the prep school debate. Arslan wrote that newspapers are free to criticize things, but the criticism cannot be made as a form of revenge. The right to open a prep school is a democratic right, Arslan said.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

War on Gulen Movement undermines Turkish diplomacy

Hizmet school in Bangladesh receives the International Arch of Europe Award

Has Turkey arrested Christian to exchange for Fethullah Gülen?

Samples of Kimse Yok Mu Ramadan Aid Activities Worldwide (I)

Wife says dismissed police chief left to die of colorectal cancer in İzmir prison

Turkey detainees tortured, raped after failed coup, rights group says

Losing rationality in politics and the economy

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News