Veteran who lost legs in PKK attack removed from civil service over Gulen links


Date posted: September 19, 2016

A Kırıkkale man who lost his both legs in a PKK attack while doing military service in the eastern province of Bingöl, has been sacked from a state institution after authorities found out that private colleges linked to Gülen Movement granted scholarship to his children.

The movement stands accused of orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt despite its successive denials. The government meanwhile carries out an ever-growing witch-hunt against any individual allegedly suspected of being linked to the movement.

Harun İpek, a 41-year-old father of four, lost his two legs after he stepped on a mine planted by the outlawed PKK in 2001. He served as a public worker at Kırıkkale branch of the Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks until he was fired.

“My children used to be proud of being children of a veteran. Now they are seen as infidels. …I have not been told about the underlying reason [for my removal]. Due to the reasons beyond my control, I sent my children to such schools for seven years in freely-granted veteran-quota,” İpek said.

More than 100,000 people have been either sacked or suspended from state institutions over their alleged links to the movement so far.

Source: Turkey Purge , Sep 18, 2016

Tags: | | | |


Related News

Gov’t discriminates against Hizmet-affiliated private schools

Some private schools affiliated with the Hizmet movement, a faith-based social movement inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, have been prevented from accessing government incentives. According to an official list published by the Education Ministry on Monday, many high-achieving private schools did not make the cut to be eligible for financial aid from the government.

In Turkey today, mother who delivered baby yesterday detained

Fadime Günay, who delivered a baby yesterday has been detained today. Although she was in hospital to give birth, police awaited at the hospital to detain her. She was brought to the courthouse with her one-day-old baby and her mother.

Erdogan’s Journey – Conservatism and Authoritarianism in Turkey

What happened to Recep Tayyip Erdogan? The Turkish president came to power in 2003 promising economic and political liberalization. But under his rule, Turkey has instead moved in a profoundly illiberal, authoritarian direction, which some feared was Erdogan’s true agenda, given his background in Islamist politics. Rather, Erdogan has become something more akin to a traditional Middle Eastern strongman: consolidating personal power, purging rivals, and suppressing dissent.

Election results and the Hizmet movement

Unlike the perception that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tried to create, with the help of tremendous media power, the contention in the run-up to the elections was never between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Hizmet movement (or the so-called foreign forces that colluded with it).

Questions we dare not ask: Gülen and the coup

Gareth Jenkins once criticized Turkey’s infamous Ergenekon indictments on the grounds that they were “products of ‘projective’ rather than deductive reasoning, working backwards from the premise that the organization exists to weave unrelated individuals, statements and acts into a single massive conspiracy.” Other than being a far more extreme example of “projective” rather than “deductive” reasoning, how is the Turkish government and its media’s attempt at connecting Turkey’s failed coup with Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement he inspires any different?

Police and inspectors raid Gülen-inspired schools in Çanakkale

In yet another government-orchestrated operation targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement, police officers and inspectors from several ministries and institutions conducted raids at schools established by volunteers of the movement early on Wednesday in the northwestern city of Çanakkale.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Ex-diplomats detained over Gülen links subjected to severe torture, says deputy

Carter Center gives certificate of appreciation to Kimse Yok Mu

TUSKON: Twitter ban a disappointment in information age

Police raid Gülen-inspired prep schools in Erzurum

Turkey’s counter-terrorism campaign [against Hizmet] discredited

Her mother was detained right after her birth, she is now growing up in Athens

Love is A Verb – forthcoming documentary on the Gülen Movement

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News