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.
Turks See Purge as Witch Hunt of ‘Medieval’ Darkness
Candan Badem teaches history at a university in southern Turkey, is a socialist and does not believe in God. But he lost his job and was hauled in by the police and accused of being a loyalist to a shadowy Islamic cleric who lives in exile in Pennsylvania.
Perinçek: I have Erdoğan’s support in fighting Gülen movement
Doğu Perinçek, the Workers’ Party (İP) leader who was given a life sentence in 2013 as part of a trial concerning the Ergenekon terrorist organization, has said he has been “fighting a battle” against the faith-based Gülen movement since the 1970s and that now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is supporting him and the İP in the fight.
FM Davutoglu praises Fethullah Gülen’s contribution to education
4 June 2012 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has praised Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen for supporting and promoting educational activities in foreign countries, along with his efforts to inspire intercultural and interreligious dialogue globally. Davutoğlu joined the 10th International Turkish Olympiads activities on Monday in the province of Konya and […]
America Shouldn’t Give up Fethullah Gülen to Turkey
Erdoğan played the failed coup rather like Adolf Hitler used the Reichstag fire: as a fortuitous opportunity to crush critics as well as enemies. Indeed, there were suggestions that the Erdoğan government was aware of the plot but chose to allow plotters to proceed in hopes of reaping political gain.
The Hizmet movement, politics and the AKP
Hizmet cannot establish a political party because politics all over the world are mostly based on contention, challenge, belittling opponents and division. Forming a political party would harm the Hizmet movement but similar to Rumi’s compass, it endeavors to establish critically constructive contact with every single human being on the planet. Its main mission is to build bridges across cultures, communities, religions and so on.
Five global challenges: how might Hizmet respond?
Hizmet, the social movement inspired by the neo-Sufi thinker Fetullah Gülen, is currently being dismembered by the autocratic president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He accuses Gülen of ordering a coup attempt on 15th July 2016, saying it was was led by Hizmet members in the army.
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