Canadian Globe Editorial- It just gets worse in Turkey


Date posted: October 16, 2016

Globe Editorial

Which came first? The abortive military coup d’état in Turkey on July 15, or the beginnings of the Turkish government’s crackdown on the followers of Fethullah Gülen? Was there any alliance between the group in the military that attempted a coup, who may have been secularists, and the religious Gülenists?

Some Turkish officials have now said that the police “are the heroes of July 15,” because patriotic police had already been successfully purging evil Gülenists, through patriotic internal police intelligence, for a good year and a half.

If that is true, then the coup attempt had the effect of accelerating the purge of the followers of Mr. Gülen (safely far off in the Pocono Hills of Pennsylvania), and the actual misguided putschists may well have been old-fashioned military secularists in the tradition of Kemal Ataturk.

The first arrests in the police may have been few. The putsch attempt unmistakably encouraged the supporters of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to detain, arrest, suspend, etc., as many as 100,000 people – schoolteachers, journalists, police officers, judges, university deans and others not usually associated with vast political conspiracies.

The numbers are still rising; there have been 13,000 more police officers placed under suspicion just in the past few weeks.

Only 270 people died in the deplorable coup attempt. But historians may take a very long time to sort out the truths and falsehoods of these months.

It need hardly be said that most of Mr. Erdogan’s program is likely to be enacted before long. A small political party, the National Movement, will suffice to get a majority in Parliament to approve a referendum to establish a new executive presidency for Mr. Erdogan, with the support of his Justice and Development Party, the AKP. The traditional opposition parties don’t want this change.

We can reasonably hope that there won’t be any large-scale bloody purges, Stalin-style. But Turkey is likely to grow further away from Europe. The convenient travel visas to the rest of Europe, which many Turks have hoped for, may be a long time away.

Source: The Globe and Mail , October 14, 2016


Related News

Somalian students condemn plot against Kimse Yok Mu

Kimse Yok Mu has presence in 113 nations directly providing aid to 300 thousands. The non-profit passed a controversially rigorous 2-month inspection with flying colors.

Growing Corruption Inquiry Hits Close to Turkish Leader

In building his political career, Turkey’s powerful and charismatic prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, relied heavily on the support of a Sufi mystic preacher [Fethullah Gulen] whose base of operations is now in Pennsylvania. Mr. Gulen’s followers “never approved the role the government tried to attain in the Middle East, or approved of its policy in Syria, which made everything worse, or its attitude in the Mavi Marmara crisis with Israel,” said Ali Bulac, a conservative intellectual and writer who supports Mr. Gulen.

New mom jailed with baby for alleged ties to Turkey coup

A woman in Turkey who just gave birth was arrested at the hospital and thrown behind bars three days later — along with her newborn baby — as part of the country’s widespread purge of “Gulenists,” a report says.

Turkey’s Erdogan and ISIS’ new breeding ground

Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan appears to be having a double dealings on taking the fight to ISIS. He has instead prefer a cosmetic approach in tackling the terrorist group. It is high time Erdogan purged himself of insincerity and religious rhetoric in the fight against ISIS and joined forces with other leaders to bring enduring peace to Turkey, the Middle-East and the various parts of the world.

Human Rights Watch: People being tortured, abducted in post-coup Turkey

People detained after the last year’s failed putsch have been subject to torture in police custody while several others were abducted outside detention facilities, according to a recent report by the Human Rights Watch. The New York-based watchdog documented human rights abuses occurred between March and August 2017 in its 43-page report, “In Custody: Police Torture and Abductions in Turkey.”

Gulistan schools in Kosovo to continue education despite its abducted teachers

Gulistan Educational Institutions has declared that they will continue their activities despite their abducted teachers. 5 of their teachers were abducted by Turkish Intelligence Agency in cooperation with Kosovo’s intel agency, which shocked the global education community and protested in many countries including USA, Canada, and UK.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

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

In Case You Missed It

Why is Erdoğan hostile to Turkish schools?

Who benefits the most from the AKP-Gülen movement rift?

Fethullah Gülen donates $10,000 for victims of Typhoon Haiyan disaster in Philippines

Despite blocking accounts, Kimse Yok Mu able to collect donations

Gulen’s “Messenger of God: Muhammad” sold out at Buenos Aires book fair

Hrant Topakiyan’s feelings about the Journalists and Writers Foundation

Turkey’s teachers, police officers join unskilled labor force after coup purge

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News