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

Excitement of Turkish Olympiads felt in Ethiopia

The Ethiopian final of the 12 th International Turkish Olympiads program was held in Sheraton Hotel in the city with the participation of around 450 people, most of whom are the parents of the students attending Internationa Nejashi Turkish School.

Secular Pakistanis resist Turkey’s ‘authoritarian’ demands

Turkey has asked Pakistan to crack down on institutions run by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara believes was behind the failed coup against President Erdogan. But many Pakistanis do not want to follow along.

Fuat Avni claims Gülen-inspired schools to be closed due to fabricated auditing standards

A government whistleblower who tweets under the pseudonym Fuat Avni has claimed a new wave of police raids will be conducted on private and prep schools intended to shut them down temporarily or permanently based on fabricated auditing standards before the Nov. 1 snap election.

Islamic scholar Gülen’s family criticizes PM’s offensive language

Kemal Gülen addressed allegations about the scholar’s financial situation, explaining that Fethullah Gülen resides at a facility that belongs to a foundation and for which he pays rent, rejecting the claim that the scholar owns the property.

Analysis: Power of Turkey’s Fethullah Gulen

PM Erdogan accuses Hizmet supporters within the state of plotting a “coup” against the government. But the scale of the upheaval in the police, judiciary, Turkish state TV and other parts of the bureaucracy is already similar to what happens in a coup. The current Erdogan-Gulen stand-off is reminiscent of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s hostile relations with Said-i Nursi, a politically active Kurdish preacher in the formative years of the Turkish Republic.

Journalists and Writers Foundation’s statement [on arrest warrant issued for Mr. Gulen]

It is a well-known fact that then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had sent Bülent Arınç to Mr. Fethullah Gülen to give him the message, “We are ready to do anything you want us to do,” and that he had called on Mr. Gülen to return to the country to “put an end to homesickness” in the witness of tens of thousands of spectators in a stadium.

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

HRW to Turkey: Investigate Ankara abductions, disappearances

Gülen Movement Discussed in Malaysia Seminar

Fethullah Gülen’s Message of Condolences for the Death of Soccer Star, Diego Maradona

Intel chief first gives anti-Hizmet file to Obama, then visits Gülen, STV president Karaca says

US law professor: Gülen extradition would be unlawful

JWF organized a side-event at UN in Geneva

In Erdogan regime western-oriented intellectuals, bureaucrats, liberals, Kurds, civil society activists in mortal danger

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News