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.
Erdoğan delivered a speech that will be remembered as a disgrace in political history as he referred to the struggle against the Hizmet movement.He not only confessed that the government has been tyrannizing certain social segments but also openly revealed future illegalities.
Turkish Businesses Snagged In Government’s Post-Coup Crackdown
Most of the companies taken over by the government also deny any role or connection to Gulen. But they’ve had their assets seized and employees fired. The economist Yesilada predicts the government will have to sell off these businesses. That’s likely to trigger lawsuits that could last years.
Erdoğan’s overarching purge is not a road accident
The purge of the Hizmet Movement is what the Kurdish question was to Kemalism, a necessary tool with which to construct a new national identity, a tool to silence those who question it, and to design a social and political system that will foster it. Unfortunately, Turkey has no chance of going back, even to its fragile and dysfunctional democracy, without this narrative being completely rejected.
Pro-Erdogan journalist says killing Gülen followers, even their babies, a religious obligation
Hüseyin Adalan, a journalist working for a number of pro-government media outlets, has said it is a religious obligation to kill all followers of the Gülen movement and even their babies.
Reuters interview Gulen, he says he would not flee U.S. to avoid extradition to Turkey
Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based Muslim cleric accused by Turkey of instigating last year’s failed coup, says he has no plans to flee the United States and would accept extradition if Washington agrees to a request by Ankara to hand him over.
Victims of Turkey’s purge exploited also by lawyers with exorbitantly high fees
Victims of Turkey’s post-coup purge have been taking another toll from lawyers who ask outrageously high prices either to keep themselves out of trouble or to exploit from the lost causes. In Turkey, the presumption of innocence has been dramatically reversed and now everybody is assumed guilty until they prove their innocence.
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