Human Rights Watch Director: This is a political purge… pure and simple!


Date posted: January 31, 2017

HizmetNews.Com

Reuters reports that Turkish authorities have dismissed more than 90,000 public servants for alleged connections to a coup attempt in July 2016. Labour Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said 125,485 people from the public service had been put through legal proceedings after the coup attempt, and that 94,867 of those had been dismissed so far.

Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch Director, has denounced the purge saying “No one pretends there were 90,000 coup plotters. This is a political purge, pure and simple. Erdogan’s Turkey”

 

As Reuters reports [Erdogan’s] Turkey has been rooting out followers of the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Erdogan accuses the Gulen’s Hizmet movement of having infiltrated state institutions and plotted to overthrow the government. Gulen has unequivocally denied the allegations and condemned the coup immediately before it was repelled.

 

 

 

 


Related News

Erdoğan planning to stage another coup in bid to eradicate remaining dissidents, columnist claims

According to TR724 columnist Selin Tanbay, Erdoğan’s speech was nothing but the first signal of what she calls ‘a new plot in the making’ against the sympathizers of the Gülen movement and other dissident voices. Giving his Ramadan holiday message on September 13, Erdoğan kept his eyes away from the teleprompter and let his plans slip out for a while, Tanbay said.

More emphasis should be given to improving students’ functional skills

Tens of educators, bureaucrats and representatives of civil society organizations and private education foundations from Turkey and 15 other countries, have said the Turkish education system should not only focus on transferring information but also on improving students’ functional skills and capabilities.

Gülen’s lawyer condemns Erdoğan’s accusations, TÜSİAD calls for sanity in country

Prominent Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen’s lawyer, Nurullah Albayrak, condemned Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s latest comments about Gülen.

Antioch came together over Iftar

FAZİLET CANDAN – ANTIOCH Ramadan brings peace, mercy and blessings to the society. One good example if this was an iftar in Antioch, Turkey, where Alevite and Sunni Muslims, Jews, and Christians came together. Antioch has been remembered because of terrorism and some political incidents in the city. However, Alevites and Sunnis, Christians and Jews […]

3 dead, 5 missing in attempt to escape Turkey’s post-coup crackdown

At least three people died and five others were missing after a boat carrying a group of eight capsized on Tuesday in the Maritsa River while seeking to escape a post-coup crackdown in Turkey.

Who is Fethullah Gulen, the man blamed for coup attempt in Turkey?

Was a plan to overthrow Turkey’s government really hatched behind a gated compound in a small, leafy Pennsylvania town, or is that merely a smoke screen? In the throes of a military coup attempt, Turkey’s embattled president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pointed the finger of blame squarely at his bitter rival: Fethullah Gulen. At the center […]

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

Turkish Cultural Center Hosts Food Drive

Brazil court orders release of Gulen-linked businessman accused by Ankara of terrorism

Journalists and Writers Foundation’s statement [on arrest warrant issued for Mr. Gulen]

Rising Value of Turkey: ‘The Gülen Movement’

Refugee mother overjoyed after reuniting with daughters

CSOs continue to condemn hate speech against Hizmet movement

US law professor: Gülen extradition would be unlawful

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News