34 housewives arrested over Gülen links in İstanbul
Date posted: January 29, 2017
Thirty-four housewives were arrested by a Turkish court on Saturday due to alleged use of a smart phone application called ByLock and links to the Gülen movement, which the Turkish government blames for a failed coup last July, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
According to the report, police detained a total of 55 women on Friday in simultaneous raids across İstanbul. Of those, 34 were sent to jail late on Saturday, while four were released pending trial.
Arrestees are reportedly accused of using ByLock and attending a pro-Gülen movement meeting in front of İstanbul’s notorious Çağlayan Courthouse on July 2, 2014.
Esteemed Fethullah Gülen frequently underlines: “Forget getting a share of political power. We cannot accept control of the world even if it is presented to us on a gold tray because this would create disappointment among those actively supporting our cause. And people would think ‘They’ve also been deceived by the love of position and sense of interest. All these [voluntary] efforts were for the sake of getting a share in the political power’.”
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Rumors have it that the Erdoğan government will file criminal charges against people alleged to be associated with this “parallel structure,” a veiled reference by Erdoğan to the Hizmet movement, inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, that the government claims as the force driving the massive corruption investigations that have shaken the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
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A prosecutor has filed charges against a director of Samanyolu TV accusing him of “insulting” and “slandering” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and fomenting “grudges and hostility among the public,” demanding up to 11 years and two months in prison.
Torture – Turkish prisoner says tied to chair, pushed into sea while under custody
A Turkish man, identified with his initials D.G., was bound to a chair and pushed into sea on multiple times as police officers tortured him while under custody. Detained as part of an investigation into the Gulen movement in October 2016, D.G. was put in pre-trial detention after days of torture, he told his brother during latter’s recent visit to the prison.
In controversial move Parliament votes to shut down prep schools
The removal of prep schools, however, remains an unsettled dispute, with opponents to the bill saying that without eliminating standardized testing for university entrance, the move will only serve to hamper the poorer high school students’ plans to attend universities, as socioeconomic disparity shows itself in exam results.
Toward the ‘Mubarak model’
As Turkey’s all-inclusive civil society organization, the Hizmet movement, which has always advocated human rights and freedom, adopted democracy, worked to make the state more transparent and accountable, supported Turkey’s accession to the EU and its integration into the world, has become a target.
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