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

US law professor: Gülen extradition would be unlawful

Seval Yıldırım, a professor of law at Whittier Law School, said in a statement to Today’s Zaman on Wednesday that for the US to extradite Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen without a formal case against him would be an infringement of US law.

Hakan Yavuz: Der Spiegel’s inflammatory, biased journalism on Turkey story shocked me

A Turkish-American professor has slammed German Der Spiegel’s what he called “inflammatory and biased” reporting in its article about the movement associated with Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. “Reading today’s article on the Gülen movement was a real shock for me,” Yavuz, who is a professor at the University of Utah, told Today’s Zaman, referring […]

Turkish anti-terrorism police carried out raids in six cities, detaining at least five people with alleged links to al-Qaida

The police raid “is a deliberate attack on the IHH,” said Yasar Kutluay, the group’s secretary general. “They are trying to portray the group as an organization with links to terrorism.” He blamed Israel and Gulen’s supporters, for the operation — a charge Gulen’s movement immediately rejected as “slander and false incrimination.”

Hizmet unmasks ‘undemocratic’ Erdogan

What appears to be going on in Turkey now is a struggle between the Hizmet movement and Erdogan. However, when you scratch the surface, it is easy to detect the increasing authoritarian and arbitrary rule under Erdogan’s government. All Gulen is doing is asking for a more democratic Turkey.

A Case Study In How Lobbyists For Turkish Government Manipulate The American Media on Gulen Issue

Turkish news outlets lit up this weekend after a former Republican lawmaker published an op-ed at The Hill calling on the U.S. government to extradite Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Muslim cleric whose return to Turkey is an obsession for the NATO nation’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

CHP deputy calls Erdoğan’s order to bring down Hizmet ‘crime’

The CHP deputy pointed out it does not say the president can threaten or can give instructions to the MGK to bring down an organization.
According to this Monday’s Taraf daily, the ruling AK Party (Justice and Development Party) is planning to put forward a proposal to MGK to consider the Hizmet movement as illegal. Erdoğan hinted that the MGK would take action against “parallel structures.

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

76 newborns stateless as Turkey denies passports over parents’ Gülen links

A road less traveled

Chestnut Retreat Center offers a look inside their Saylorsburg facility and its mission

Trip to Turkey about understanding

Germany’s dialogue awards find their recipients

Turkish schools in Mali stay open despite conflict

British Foreign Secretary praises Turkish schools in Afghanistan

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News