Dialogue Platform’s Statement on Developments in Turkey
Fethullah Gülen (Photo: herkul.org)
Date posted: July 16, 2016
Dialogue Platform which is connected with Gulen’s mouvement Hizmet, in a Statement denied any involvment in Turkey’s coup.
The Statement says:
“Our Honorary President Fethullah Gulen has consistently advocated for democracy and insisted “there is no return from the democracy” at every stage of his life.
Hizmet participants have always denounced the military interventions and demonstrated the attitude for the peaceful coexistence, freedom and democracy. Thus, Dialogue Platform strongly condemns any attempt to throw an elected government by military coup.
We have always supported development of Turkey’s democracy and its membership to European Union despite of the increasing anti-democratic practices in recent years.
President Erdogan and his close circles’ blame on the Hizmet Movement is very irresponsible and concerning.
We hope that Turkey will overcome these difficult days and take this sad incident as an opportunity to strengthen its democracy.”
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Stuttgart police: ‘Boycotts of Gülen-friendly shops are potential hate crimes’
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Erdoğan isolates himself in power
Erdoğan is picky about journalists escorting him on board his official plane; he doesn’t like to see journalists asking annoying question around him anyway, but this time the criteria became really narrow. Umut Oran, Deputy Chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) asked the prime minister about his criteria, since Erdoğan excluded most popular papers like Hürriyet, Zaman, Posta, or critical ones like Sözcü, Cumhuriyet, Radikal, and whether the travel expenses of journalists from pro-government papers would be covered on the government budget.
‘Fethullah Gulen is one of the leading Islamic thinkers in the world’
I think the Gulen, or Hizmet, Movement represents Islam by, on the one hand, maintaining a strong connection to and being rooted in the Islamic primary sources, such as the Qur’an and the Prophetic teachings, but, at the same time, not neglecting the world around it.
Hizmet, politics and political parties
In the past, the Hizmet movement never formed alliances or got involved in an organic relationship with any political party. At the same time, it never ever demanded anything from political parties that strayed outside of the above-outlined principles, or was contrary to rights, the law, democracy, merit or the will of God. The Hizmet movement gains its strength from this fullness of heart and independence.
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