Erdoğan vows to strip Gülen sympatizers off Turkish citizenship


Date posted: October 17, 2016

Reiterating his threats against sympathizers of the grassroots Gülen movement who are fleeing the oppression in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said they can become citizens of countries to which they flee while once again vowing to revoke their citizenship.

Speaking in his Black Sea hometown of Rize on Saturday, Erdoğan repeated his unsubstantiated accusations against the Gülen movement, calling its sympathizers “terrorists.” Erdoğan urged these people under persecution to become citizens of the countries in which they are living, saying that “they will not be considered citizens of this country.”

“We have entered their lairs. They run, we are told to chase them. Are they running? Let them become citizens of the places to which they flee. They will no longer be citizens of this country,” Erdoğan said as part of his relentless witch-hunt against the Gülen movement.

Calling Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen, who inspires the movement, which has established schools around the world, a coward, Erdoğan asked Gülen return to Turkey to stand trial. Turkey’s increasingly oppressive president argued that the Gülen movement is a terrorist organization just like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C).

Despite unanswered questions as to who provided intelligence on the coup to the president and the government, and when, Erdoğan has been accusing Gülen of masterminding the coup since day one. An Erdoğan-led purge was initiated immediately after the failed coup of July 15 and has cost over 100,000 people their freedom, jobs and basic rights. More than 32,000 have been arrested in Turkey, including judges, prosecutors, academics and journalists.

Source: Turkish Minute , October 15, 2016

Tags: | | | | |


Related News

Turkey’s ‘black box’ must be opened

The recent debate on tutoring centers and private prep schools and the shocking revelations on the dirty warfare used in the 1990s against the Kurdish population are certainly parts of this pressure-cooker-like mood. It is obvious that “Erdoğan’s Way” of running the country is based on keeping tension just under control, so that it will serve his own ambitions to cement personal power.

Bank Asya says it weathers ‘stress test’, still strong

Turkish media say state-owned companies and institutional depositors loyal to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have withdrawn TL 4 billion ($1.79 billion), some 20 percent of the bank’s total deposits, over the last month to try to sink the lender. The government has declined to comment. Bank Asya’s chief executive Ahmet Beyaz said the bank’s founders included sympathizers of cleric Fethullah Gülen, who officials say is behind the corruption investigation posing one of the biggest challenges to Erdoğan’s 11-year rule. But he said the bank was not at risk.

Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) bridging Eastern, Western worlds

The GYV was founded in 1994, and the mission and work of the foundation is inspired by its Honorary President Fethullah Gülen. Gülen, known for his teachings of hizmet (service), tolerance and dialogue, has attracted a large number of supporters in Turkey and Central Asia and increasingly in other parts of the world.

Government drags military into politics

There are now serious question marks over whether the government orchestrated the operations at TİB to libel Hizmet for wiretapping with the aim of diverting attention from the separate spying case under way in Ankara and saving those uniformed men from facing judicial scrutiny over charges of spying.

Sacked Turkish professor applies to employment organization

As the government has launched a sweeping campaign to eliminate any employees, be they public servants or academics, that it suspects of having links with Hizmet from state institutions, Özsoy said the purge is not restricted to state universities. It now includes private universities, too.

Fethullah Gülen: Turkey coup may have been ‘staged’ by Erdoğan regime

Fethullah Gülen, the reclusive cleric blamed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the failed coup in Turkey, believes the uprising by members of the country’s military could have been “staged” by the government it aimed to overthrow.

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

Canadian Globe Editorial- It just gets worse in Turkey

The Community has infiltrated the European Court of Human Rights as well!

Pro-gov’t media knows no limits in ’parallel’ claims

AKP turns medical university into its headquarters

Tanzanian Minister hails Turkey for continued support in education

The Turkish Connection: Pak-Turk Schools

Helping hands to Kosova

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News