Turkey deports former EU official for alleged Gulen-ties


Date posted: September 26, 2016

The Turkish authorities prevented a former EU official from entering its territory. Joost Lagendijk, a former EU parliament member and EU rapporteur, was deported from the Sabiha Airport in Istanbul on Sunday.

“Turkish authorities stopped me on my return from the Netherlands at Sabiha Gökcen airport. They deported me back to the Netherlands,” the Dutch former politician said.

“Turkey required me to apply for a special visa at the Turkish embassy in the Netherlands,” Lagendijk wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “I hope it is only a bureaucratic obstacle and not a decision to block me forever.”

The decision is most likely part of the purge against the Fethullah Gulen sect after the failed military coup in July.

After the coup attempt, the Turkish government blamed the Islamist Gulen movement for orchestrating military coup in Turkey. However, the movement’s US-based leader denied the accusations.

Lagendijk wrote as a columnist for the pro-Gulen newspaper Zaman and Today’s Zaman, until they were closed.

He lost his job at the pro-Gulen Sabanci University that was closed by the government for ties to the Gulen movement.

Lagendijk is a former Green Left Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and served as the joint chairman of the Turkey-EU Parliamentarians delegation.

He was also known as the ‘son-in-law of Turkey’ for marrying Turkish journalist Nevin Sungur in 2006.

Source: ARA News , September 25, 2016

Tags: | | |


Related News

Ministerial bureaucrats being purged over their alleged affiliations with Hizmet

Radikal said the only criteria in these purges is the “parallel state,” a term the government uses to define those bureaucrats known to favor the Hizmet movement, which is a grassroots movement based on voluntary participation to spread interfaith dialogue and tolerance with a particular emphasis on education.

Human Rights Watch: Emergency Decrees Facilitate Torture in Turkey

Turkish police have tortured and otherwise ill-treated individuals in their custody after emergency decrees removed crucial safeguards in the wake of a failed coup attempt in July, 2016, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The report details 13 cases of alleged abuse, including stress positions, sleep deprivation, severe beatings, sexual abuse, and rape threats, since the coup attempt.

Something rotten within the government?

It stinks. This is the bluntest description of what the graft probe has revealed so far… So, regardless of the view of the issue as “Erdoğan vs the Hizmet movement,” it boils down to a battle between moral and immoral, clean and dirty, which is the real story of Turkey in the past 12 years. It was not the Hizmet movement, nor liberals, nor other reformists that brought the AKP to power; it was the average people of Turkey.

The Gülen community and the AKP

TAHA AKYOL The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), which is in line with Fethullah Gülen, has issued an announcement on relations with the ruling party. It is certain that Gülen made the last retouches on the text himself. Gülen defines the movement shortly as “Hizmet” (translated roughly as “service” in English). I asked those who […]

Gülen calls on corrupt politicians to confess their sins, beg forgiveness

Turkish intellectual and Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen called on senior officials in Turkey on Friday to repent for their sins and lies made to scapegoat others and avoid the blame for their own corruption.

Will the military take up arms against Gülen supporters?

In modern states, again, elected governments will be the final authority to decide about external threat perceptions after compiling input from related institutions, including the military.

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

Erdoğan raising new army of political Islamists

Tears and sadness as Turkish people pack up to leave Pakistan

NPR’s Interview with Gulen – He Denies Involvement In Coup Attempt

Hizmet-affiliated schools removed from private school incentive list

Mysteries, and a Crackdown, Persist a Year After a Failed Coup in Turkey

Turkish School Leader Abducted, and Released, in Mongolia

Defamation campaign against Gülen draws heavy criticism

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News