Turkey introduces new decree law to seize all Gulen-related companies
Date posted: August 25, 2016
Thanks to a new decree law released as part of the state of emergency declared late on July 20 following a failed coup, Turkey’s government is now set to seize all the Turkish companies owned by businessmen somehow linked to the US-based Islamic Scholar Fethullah Gülen.
AK Party government has already been appointing trustees to private entities in Turkey, as part of its battle against Gulen Movement since a corruption scandal led to the resignation of four Cabinet ministers in December 2013. A total of 2,000 trustees were appointed to hundreds of private entities in Turkey since the beginning of 2016.
According to Haber Türk daily, takeover of Turkish companies linked to Gulen movement through appointment of trustees became a thing of the past, as Turkish government now “legally” authorized by a new decree law to nationalize/privatize any entities affiliated with the movement.
The Gülen movement is a grassroots social initiative inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Erdoğan refers to the movement as “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization.”
Turkish minister: Gulenists are more dangerous than ISIL because they’re well-educated
Berat Albayrak, Turkish energy minister and son-in-law of President Tayyip Erdoğan, has said at a conference that people affiliated with the Gülen movement are more dangerous than Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants because they’re well educated and have “higher IQs” than his own.
Erdogan Moves to Shut Prep Schools in Blow to Gulen Followers
The issue is important to Gulen’s followers, who teach about 400,000 of the 1.2 million prep school students. The schools offer additional training to students preparing for exams from elementary schools to universities.
Erdogan has so far removed thousands of police officers and prosecutors on suspected ties to Gulen’s movement, while pro-government media has targeted companies for alleged links to the cleric.
What is this bedlam all about?
So, as expected, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared all-out war. The enemy — what he and his advisers regard as “the junta formation within the police,” the media, the judiciary, the American Embassy, affiliates of the mainly volunteer Hizmet movement, and, well, whoever seems to disagree with the way he intends to run the country and whoever tends to believe there is no smoke without fire — have dug their trenches in a circle.
My Meeting With Fethullah Gülen, the Man Accused of Plotting Turkey’s Coup
I saw the simple room in which he lives, adjacent to the room in which we met: a mattress on the floor, a prayer rug, a few books, and a reading table. Everything I knew before the meeting was confirmed that hour: This man is not the kind of person who would (or even could) plan a coup.
Toward a party state
At this point, the only thing Erdoğan can do is manufacture false charges and evidence against the Hizmet movement, which wouldn’t be persuasive. In a normal democratic state where the rule of law is cherished, there must be concrete evidence to press charges against anyone, and those so charged are presumed innocent until they are proven guilty. In a party state, however, imaginary charges are first voiced and then meddlesome public authorities manufacture crimes and criminals to fit those charges.
An open letter to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan
When it is necessary, making objections demonstrates honesty; approving everything is an indication of hypocrisy. So if all these people are saying that this is wrong, listening to them is not a weakness but a virtue. This is what the nation expects from you. Otherwise, it will take forever to heal the wounds that have been inflicted in their hearts. So is it worth it?
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