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.

 

 

 

 

Tags: | | | |


Related News

Turkey’s largest religious publication group denied spot at Ramadan book fair

Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs has refused to allocate an exhibit space at a Ramadan book fair to the country’s largest religious publication group over its affiliation with the Gülen movement.

Why is the Turkish PM Erdoğan having difficulty?

It may be surprising, but Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is boosting the polarization resulting from the prep school debate. Obviously, though, he is having trouble pursuing his goal. He took the time to give lengthy answers to reporters’ questions about the prep schools debate just before he flew to Russia and he directly engaged in polemics with the Gülen movement.

Corruption, Stigmatization, and Innocence

Unfortunately, the Hizmet Movement as one of the leading civilian movements contributing to intercultural dialogue and peace in the world has been labeled as one of the players to destabilize Turkey by the pro-government press too.

Tentacles of Turkey’s growing autocracy reach Thailand

“After the 2010 election, Erdogan and the AKP failed to politicise the Gulen movement, a civilian Islamic phenomenon,” Erdem says. Power-hungry forces within the AKP reached out to Gulen, intent on tapping this source of mass political support. When the tactic failed, Gulen supporters came to be seen as enemies of the state.

CHP submits parliamentary question on anti-Hizmet plot

The probe in question accuses the movement of working to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and possessing arms intended to be used to this end, among other fictitious and unsubstantiated claims.

Georgia refuses refugee status to detained ‘Gülen school manager’

Georgia’s Ministry of Refugees has refused to grant a refugee status to Mustafa Emre Çabuk, a manager at the Private Demirel College, a school linked to Turkish opposition political figure Fethullah Gülen. Mr Çabuk was detained in Tbilisi on Turkey’s request.

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

Egyptian Congressmen Visited the Turkish School in Cairo

Why was I mistaken about political Islamism?

Why is the government freeing bloody murderers?

1,500 pounds of frozen meat for needy Staten Island families

Gulen blasts ‘despicable’ 2016 Turkey coup bid, subsequent ‘witch hunt’

I am afraid 2012 will not be easy

Former CHP Chairman Baykal supports joint mosque-cemevi project

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News