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

Can a Post-Coup Turkey Get Along with Europe?

None of this has stopped the government from undertaking a huge, self-destructive purge, with around 10,000 people arrested, 100,000 people dismissed, and the seizure of assets of more than $4 billion, numbers that worry not just human rights activists but foreign investors as well. The government’s fury is understandable but it should distinguish between those who took part in the coup and those who simply belonged to the Gulen movement.

25-year-old woman escapes Turkey’s witch-hunt as Bosnia grants asylum

A 25-year-old woman, identified as H.G., was granted asylum by Bosnian court which dismissed Turkey’s request for extradition, according to media.

Turkey builds 50 more prisons for Gülenists: Justice Minister

Turkish Justice Ministry Undersecretary Kenan İpek on Tuesday said more than 50 prisons are under construction for the incarceration of people linked to the Gülen group.

Hatred-inciting discourses and the debate on ‘genocide and crime against humanity’

Speaking to reporters on April 29 during his return from an official visit to Kuwait, President Erdoğan made these much-debated remarks: “Those belonging to this organization [Hizmet movement], from top to bottom, should certainly pay a price. They will either respect state authority or WILL PERISH.”

TUSKON storm

When Meral said: “Politics is a platform where you serve the people. It is not the place to make money or build a fortune,” thousands of businessmen listening to his speech stood up and enthusiastically applauded.

Swiss investigate spying on Turkish community

The Swiss foreign minister told his Turkish counterpart on Thursday that Switzerland would “rigorously investigate” any illegal spying by Ankara on expatriate Turks before an April 16 referendum that could expand Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s powers.

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

Should the Hizmet movement form a political party?

AfSV Statement on the Turkish government’s detainment of Kutbettin Gülen

Somali students caring for the Soma orphans

Who wants peace?

Back to school in Turkey after post-coup teacher purge

Mother detained over Gülen links while premature baby left in intensive care

Turkey Concedes: No Evidence Linking Gulen to Coup Sent to Washington

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News