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.
Columnist fired from pro-gov’t daily after critical comment over Soma
In a similar development, the Yenişafak daily, another pro-government newspaper fired columnist Süleyman Gündüz for his refusal to toe the newspaper’s line against Hizmet Movement (also known as Gülen movement) led and inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Education minister calls on African ambassadors to have Gülen-inspired schools closed
Turkish Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz has called on ambassadors of African countries to have their governments close schools affiliated with the faith-based Gülen movement.
Opposition, diplomats slam gov’t attempt to shut down Turkish schools
The government’s attempts to shut down Turkish schools abroad which are affiliated with the Hizmet movement, inspired by the teachings of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, have been severely criticized by opposition members and diplomats.
Don’t forget! The real agenda is corruption, theft
The core matter is neither a power struggle between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and the Hizmet movement or a so-called imaginary “parallel state,” claim propagated in reference to the natural presence of sympathizers of the Hizmet movement in the public sector. Despite all attempts at diversion and distraction, what we should always keep in mind in our discussions is the charges of corruption, graft and unfair revenues.
Why does Turkey’s President Erdogan want Knicks’ Enes Kanter in jail?
A Turkish prosecutor asked for NBA’s New York Knicks star Enes Kanter to be jailed for up to four years for insulting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, the state-run news agency Anadolu reported on Wednesday. “I have said less than that honorless (man) deserves. Add another 4 years for me, master,” he told his 526,000 Twitter followers.
In Turkey, The Man To Blame For Most Everything(!) Is A U.S.-Based Cleric
It isn’t just last month’s attempted coup that the Gulen movement is being blamed for! Everything from suicide bomb attacks to past mine disasters are being laid at the cleric’s doorstep. Just to name a few: last November’s Turkish shootdown of a Russian fighter jet, an explosion at a coal mine in Soma led to an underground fire that killed 301 people in 2014, a horrific suicide bombing at a wedding in Gaziantep killed dozens in August and even killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007.
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