Turkey Continues Its Witch Hunt Against Gülen Followers
Photos of the individuals arrested and detained. Source: Turkish Minute.
Date posted: September 3, 2016
MICHAEL VAN DER GALIEN
The purges continue unabated in Turkey. On Friday, 218 individuals were arrested on charges of being members of a terrorist organization. Another 421 were detained.
These arrests and detentions took place more than 6 weeks after the Turkish military staged a failed coup. In the meantime, not only the military officers responsible for the coup have been arrested, but the same goes for many others: people who had absolutely nothing to do with the coup, but who are simply accused of sympathizing with Fethullah Gülen, the Islamic scholar Turkey says masterminded the coup.
In what’s becoming a repetitive story, a host of journalists, lawyers, teachers and civil servants were among those arrested by the authorities.
All in all, more than 41,000 people have been detained in recent weeks, and more than 22,000 individuals were arrested. According to the latest reports, a sum total of 130,000 people have lost their jobs.
Organization (Kimse Yok Mu?) helped 79 Syrian families
“Is Anybody There?” Organization officials delivered donations, blankets and food to Syrian families with the coordination of AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Department) officials. The president of “Is Anybody There?” Elazig branch, Mr. Onder Colak, noted that they have been making donations to Syrian refugees in Turkey since the first days of civil war outbreak in Syria.
Did Erdogan STAGE the coup?
‘Government should be won through a process of free and fair elections, not force,” Gulen said. “I pray to God for Turkey, for Turkish citizens, and for all those currently in Turkey that this situation is resolved peacefully and quickly.’ Gulen sharply rejected any responsibility: ‘As someone who suffered under multiple military coups during the past five decades, it is especially insulting to be accused of having any link to such an attempt.
Couple jailed for watching Fethullah Gülen videos at Internet cafe
An Ankara couple has been sent to prison after they were caught watching videos belonging to US-based Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen at an internet cafe earlier this week.
Gülen’s lawyer issues written warning to pro-gov’t media outlets
Nurullah Albayrak, the lawyer representing Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, on Thursday issued a written warning to pro-government media outlets on social media for their persistent use of the expressions “parallel structure” — a term invented by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to refer to followers of the Hizmet movement — and “Fethullah Gülen terrorist organization” — referred to in the dailies as FETÖ — on the grounds that they are making baseless claims regarding the faith-based movement.
Court imposes punitive fine on author for libeling Gülen family
Mısıroğlu was found guilty of fabricating lies about Gülen’s father and grandfather in his book, “Manipulation Movements from Past to Present – 3.”
Gülen’s brothers Seyfullah and Salih Gülen and his uncle Seyfettin Gülen sued the author at the 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance, arguing that the claims in the book are baseless and defamatory. Fethullah Gülen’s lawyers have filed a second libel suit against Mısıroğlu at the İstanbul 12th Criminal Court of First Instance.
Journalist Gültaşlı: European institutions are ‘cherry-picking’ imprisoned journalists in Turkey
“It is getting increasingly clear that European institutions are ‘cherry-picking’ the imprisoned journalists in Turkey for whom they want to protest,” wrote journalist Selçuk Gültaşlı, who was Brussels bureau chief for the Turkish Zaman newspaper, on the Brussels-based online news website euobserver.com on Tuesday.
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