Fethullah Gulen Calls Crackdown ‘Dark Pages’ in History – Responses to World Affairs Council of Philadelphia
Date posted: September 16, 2016
Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen whom Turkey accuses of masterminding July’s abortive coup again condemned the Turkish government crackdown on his supporters, saying Thursday that his “heart is aching.”
In videotaped remarks to the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, Fethullah Gulen said the Turkish government is using the attempted coup to justify persecuting his followers, who he said are being “subjected to oppression and tyranny, molestation and unlawful acquisition of their private properties.”
President Erdogan says the state of emergency might be needed for another year to crush the “terrorist” threat. More than 130 media outlets have been shut down, the pro-Kurdish IMC TV the latest victim. The authorities have started releasing 38,000 prisoners, to make way for the new arrests.
Anonymous witnesses fail to identify suspects they earlier tipped off as Gulenist
An anonymous witness in Denizli failed to identify any of the 145 suspects, earlier accused of being followers of the Gulen movement, during a court hearing on Oct. 30. The judge in charge loudly read the names, however Aslan did not remember any of them. The judge asked: “Did you tip off about some names during your statement to the prosecutor, is that right?”
‘A movement like the Hizmet Movement is very important for correcting misconceptions of Islam’
Dr. Lawrence Geraty is a Professor of Archaeology and Old Testament Studies at La Sierra University in Riverside, California. He served as the second President of La Sierra University. He completed his PhD in Syro-Palestinian Archaeology at Harvard University.
Turkish journalist tells Staten Island group about censorship in his country
Turkish journalist Aydogan Vatandas warned Friday night at the Turkish Cultural Center of Staten Island in Dongan Hills that freedom of the press in his country is under siege.
Irvine’s new arrivals — Turkish asylum seekers, after a failed coup and a sadly successful purge
The man, who ran a nonprofit that provided humanitarian aid, doesn’t want to be identified because he fears for the safety of the wife and two children he was forced to leave in Turkey. They are hidden in a different city, he said, not far from his hometown. They’ve thrown away their cellphones and erased their social media accounts for fear of being tracked down by a government that no longer welcomes them.
The Turkey I no longer know
The Turkish population already is strongly polarized on the AKP regime. A Turkey under a dictatorial regime, providing haven to violent radicals and pushing its Kurdish citizens into desperation, would be a nightmare for Middle East security. I probably will not live to see Turkey become an exemplary democracy, but I pray that the downward authoritarian drift can be stopped before it is too late.
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“It was so cold, it felt like an arrow through my heart”