Erdogan purge far worse than the McCarthy era


Date posted: September 4, 2016

Shannon Ebrahim

What is happening in Turkey right now makes the McCarthy era in the US during the 1950s look like a picnic. When communists were targeted under McCarthyism they were blacklisted; hundreds were jailed if they refused to co-operate with the authorities, and many were compelled to leave the country.

In Turkey it is not communists, but Gulenists. Anyone remotely associated with the Gulen movement is being rounded up and jailed – not by the hundreds, but by the tens of thousands.

To date, at least 40 360 suspected Gulenists have been detained in Turkey over the past months. (1)

Under the McCarthy crackdown, there were no reports of torture against communists, although reports of torture of supposed Gulenists in detention are becoming more widespread, according to international human rights groups.

turkey-coup-torture-3

A UN group of experts from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights have criticised the purges in the Turkish military, media, education and justice sectors. The UN group of 19 special rapporteurs and three working groups have said the Turkish government is using “wide and indiscriminate administrative powers that affect core human rights”. The UN has raised concern that the measures are being used to target dissent and criticism of the government.

In South Africa, followers of the Gulen movement who run some of the best-performing schools in the country have been targeted and threatened by supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime.

Turkish journalists in South Africa, supporters of the Gulen movement, have been castigated as terrorists by the Turkish ambassador on public radio, with no evidence to back up these claims.

It has all become a matter of guilt by association. This is what McCarthyism was notorious for. Anyone who socialised or worked with communists in the 1950s in the US was suspected of being a communist and targeted by the state. This is the most well-documented case of guilt by association in modern history. Turkey has far surpassed McCarthyism.

In the 1950s, alleged communists were hauled before public hearings run by Senator Joseph McCarthy and grilled about their associations.

In Turkey, there is no public scrutiny of individual cases, and tens of thousands are languishing in jails. In line with a government order, 30 000 convicts have been released to make room for political detainees.

Since the attempted coup in July, 2 740 judges and prosecutors have been arbitrarily detained and many lawyers are too afraid to represent the judges for fear of guilt by association.

According to Human Rights Watch, dozens of lawyers have been detained for alleged association with the Gulen movement, and many lawyers are being pressured by the state not to represent their clients.

Under the Turkish judicial system there is no longer a presumption of innocence. The Higher Council of Judges and Prosecutors has created a list of supposed Gulenists and issued a secrecy order to have them detained under the state of emergency.

No evidence has been produced against individual detainees.

McCarthy also produced secret lists of communists to be detained, but most were at least given the opportunity of appearing before public hearings.

The irony of the whole sordid ordeal is that just a few years ago, Erdogan was a firm bedfellow of Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish preacher, writer and political figure he now finds it politically expedient to call a terrorist.

It was the Gulen movement that supported Erdogan’s rise to power in 2002, using its extensive media agencies. The movement was convinced Erdogan was a democrat who would safeguard rights and freedoms and move Turkey away from its tradition of military coups.

In the years following Erdogan’s rise to power, he used to refer to the Gulenist-owned Zaman newspaper, which has the widest circulation in the country, as the “guardians of democracy in Turkey”.

When Gulenists in the media and the judiciary started to expose the corruption of Erdogan, his family, and some of his ministers in 2013, they became public enemy No 1. And thanks to the failed coup, all Gulenists have been labelled terrorists and the onslaught against them has become a free-for-all.

There are virtually no independent media left in Turkey, with 160 media outlets having been shut down and 108 journalists detained. This week, arrest warrants were issued for a further 35 journalists. According to most journalist watchdog groups, Turkey is now the worst jailer of journalists in the world.

If we don’t tell the truth about what is happening in Turkey, who will?


(1) Check Turkey Purge for updated info on arrests and purge. 

Source: The Sunday Independent , September 4, 2016


Related News

Erdoğan distorts Gülen’s NYT op-ed, says it is about Bank Asya operation

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has presented a distorted interpretation of an op-ed written by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen that was published in The New York Times, claiming the op-ed is about the takeover of the board of Islamic lender Bank Asya by Turkey’s banking watchdog.

Turkish spies working for President Erdogan ‘infiltrate Germany’s migrant community’

Turks, who make up the majority of Germany’s immigrant community, claim their schools and mosques are being spied on by Erdogan’s undercover agents to root out supporters of Fethullah Gülen – the man the Turkish president claims is behind July’s bloody military coup.

Erdoğan’s AKP runs out of steam, then what?

We are now in the midst of a system crisis with unprecedented dimensions and unforeseen consequences. Turkey’s fiercely embattled Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is betting whatever the country has gained over the past years on a game of prospects that will either lead to a downfall, or turn the stakes in such favor for himself so as to speed up his irresistible rise to untouchability.

Police, gov’t inspectors raid Gülen-inspired private, prep schools in Gaziantep

In another instance of a government-orchestrated operation targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, the police along with inspectors from several ministries and institutions conducted raids at eight institutions owned by the Safa Education Institution, which was established by volunteers of the movement in Gaziantep, early on Monday.

‘PM conducting psychological warfare [against Hizmet movement] to cover graft claims’

The Hizmet movement is a grassroots movement based on voluntary participation aimed at fostering interfaith dialogue and tolerance, with a particular emphasis on education.

NATO Insiders Suspect Turkey Coup Was Staged by Erdogan himself

In the 8 months since Turkey’s government weathered a potentially destabilizing coup, allegations continue to swirl about who was actually behind the surprising flare up of violence. In an unsubstantiated leak to Aldrimer.no, “Senior NATO sources” currently believe the coup was staged by President Erdogan himself.

Latest News

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

Goods signed by Obama, Stallone auctioned at Turkish organization fundraiser

Arab world should embrace the Gülen model

Erdoğan planning to stage another coup in bid to eradicate remaining dissidents, columnist claims

S.A. nun speaks at the U.N. on Gulen

Dutch police arrest Erdogan backer for threats after failed Turkish coup

Minister Yazici Visits Kazakh-Turkish High School

Online Interfaith Dialogue Workshop

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News