Erdoğan now targets foreign countries for granting asylum to critics


Date posted: January 9, 2017

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has blasted foreign countries who granted asylum to sympathizers of the Gülen movement after they fled Turkey fearing persecution amid post-coup witch hunt.

Thousands of people including academics, journalists, teachers and doctors have escaped Turkey after the Turkish government proved to be knowing no boundaries in its post-coup crackdown on critics.

“Terrorist FETÖ members seeks shelter in some countries. While Syrians and people from Rakhine are being denied right to asylum, FETÖ and PKK members are served this in silver plate. A member of FETÖ which is designated as a terrorist group in our country could be appointed as a rector at a university in the US. What kind of a thing is this?”

Şerif Ali Tekalan, former rector of Istanbul’s now-closed Fatih University was named as the new rector of the North American University in the US.

The government accuses the movement of masterminding a coup attempt on July 15 while the latter denies any involvement. In it is crackdown, the government detained 80,000 people and arrested 41,000 while more than 120,000 people have lost their jobs so far. Listing the movement as a terrorist organisation without a court verdict to this effect, the government calls it FETÖ [Fethullahist Terrorist Organization].

Source: Turkey Purge , January 9, 2017

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