Leaked emails reveal Erdoğan’s son-in-law’s team fabricated news against Gülen in US

Berat Albayrak (L) and Halil Danışmaz
Berat Albayrak (L) and Halil Danışmaz


Date posted: December 9, 2016

An email included in Wikileaks’ Monday publication of the leaked emails of Berat Albayrak, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law and Turkey’s minister of energy, shows that Albayrak fabricated news with pro-government people in the United States in order to defame the Gülen movement in the US media.

An email from Halil Danışmaz, the executive director of the Turkish Heritage Foundation, a pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) think tank in the US, to Albayrak show that Danışmaz said that “the following story is ours” and forwarded a news story defaming the Gülen movement, published on the Washington-based Daily Caller website in November 2015.

The story, reported by Chuck Ross, was titled “Followers Of A Mysterious Turkish Islamic Cleric Have Donated Heavily To Hillary’s Campaign And Family Charity.”

The story claimed that a businessman close to Pennsylvania-based Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen, who is the inspiration for the Gülen movement, donated between $500,001 and $1,000,000 to the Clinton Foundation.

After Turkish hacker group RedHack seized the email account of Albayrak and disclosed the contents, it was revealed that Danışmaz was one of the pro-government figures in the United States who worked closely with Albayrak in order to defame Gülen, who Turkish government and President Erdoğan accuse of masterminding a failed coup on July 15.

The ruling AKP and Erdoğan also accuse the Gülen movement of being behind a major graft probe in December 2013 that implicated ministers, politicians, businessmen and people from the inner circles of Erdoğan’s family.

Another of Albayrak’s emails also revealed that the FBI questioned Danışmaz over allegations of spying on behalf of the Turkish government in the US.

Source: Turkish Minute , December 7, 2016

Tags: | | | | |


Related News

GYV’s dialogue center not returned despite court order

Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) officials were forced to leave its affiliate Intercultural Dialogue Center (KADIM) office in the Eyüp district of İstanbul despite a court order ruling that GYV could return to the premises after the dialogue center was unlawfully evacuated by municipal police on Dec. 26, 2014.

Fresh resignation in Turkey’s ruling AKP over graft scandal

Çetin also denied that he had spoken about resigning with Gülen, adding that the U.S.-based scholar did not give orders to anyone. “He does not interfere with anyone’s preferences. You only take advise and he gives his personal opinion. He has actually persuaded me to stay until today,” the resigned deputy said.

AK Party gov’t searches for scapegoat for stalled PKK talks

Having failed to make progress on the settlement process, which was supposed to pave the way for the disarming of Kurdish militants and address long-standing Kurdish demands, the Turkish government has now turned its attention to finding a scapegoat on which to place blame for the stalled talks ahead of national elections slated for June 2015.

Crackdown in Turkey passes the point of no return

Turkey’s alliances with the US and EU are fraying badly. Above all, Mr Erdogan is moulding the country in his own image, with only a uniform message allowed. As one liberal intellectual puts it: “In the past you got arrested for what you said, but now you can be arrested for what you don’t say.”

Islamic scholar Gülen rejects involvement with graft probe and wiretappings

“If among those who conducted the graft investigations were some people who might be connected to the Hizmet movement, was I supposed to tell these people, ‘Turn a blind eye to the corruption charges?’ It appears to me that some people were expecting me to do this. Did they expect me to do this? How can I say something that would ruin my afterlife? How else can I act?” Fethullah Gülen said.

Turkey’s Curious Coup – positions of the Turkish Government, Gulen Movement and Turkey’s Western allies

Within days of the coup attempt, James Clapper, the then-Director of US National Intelligence, said that they had not seen any intelligence indicating Gülen’s involvement. Bruno Kahl, head of Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency, said during an interview in March 2017 that he did not believe Gülen was behind the coup.

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

Teachers, parents oppose Pak-Turk Schools takeover

22 businessmen sue PM Erdoğan over Hashishin remarks against Hizmet

Who is escalating tensions?

UN demands access to 3 Turks forcibly returned from Malaysia

Journalist Karaca sentenced to 31 years for slandering al-Qaeda-affiliated group

Gülen and the AK Party: A common quest for democracy or something more? (1)

KYM donates blankets and clothing to children in Gaza

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News