Turkey calls on parents to report Erdogan critics at German schools
Supporters of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wave Turkish flags during a pro-government protest in Cologne, Germany July 31, 2016. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen
Date posted: February 16, 2017
Turkish consulates in Germany have been organizing events for Turkish parents and asking them to spy on critics of the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey at German schools, according to an education trade union, GEW (Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft).
“The Turkish consulates are pushing parents to intimidate teachers and to report teachers who criticize Turkey or President Erdoğan,” GEW official Süleyman Ateş told German media.
“We certainly know about such events in the Turkish Consulates in Düsseldorf and Essen. In other cities, we have heard from parents that there should have been such events, ” Ateş said.
Earlier, German authorities launched investigation into Turkish imams affiliated with Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DİTİB) who were alleged to have been spying on Erdoğan’s critics.
A document dated Sept. 20, 2016 said that the Turkey’s religious directorate Diyanet asked Turkish missions and religious representatives abroad to profile Gülen movement expatriates living in their respective countries.
Peter Pilz, an Austrian opposition lawmaker claimed this week that Turkey has also been operating an informer network via its embassy in Vienna that targets Erdoğan critics.
Erdogan targets Hizmet inspired schools on Africa visit
Turkey’s involvement in Africa feeds into the Turkish ruling party’s “self-perception as the protector of Muslims and Muslim minorities around the world.” There is also the understanding that the existing Gulenist networks in the West are harder to take on because of Turkey’s capability limitations in the West, especially when it comes to influence and imagery problems.
Operation against the Hizmet movement soon!
The AK Party government sees the corruption probes as a coup launched against it by the Hizmet movement and it has convinced itself that the probes are a defensive move in response to the effort to close prep schools. Already Erdoğan has presented movement supporters as spies and succeeded in dividing the state bureaucracy, families, friends and neighbors in the country. Unfortunately, this polarization in society is quite dangerous.
Scandalous return of Feb. 28
Hizmet movement lent full support to the AK Party in connection with critical issues such as the lawsuits against Ergenekon — a clandestine organization nested within the state trying to overthrow or manipulate the democratically elected government — and the e-memorandum of April 27, 2007.
Turkey’s latest bombing will help its president amass more power
Mr Erdogan likes to cast himself as a cure for the chaos spreading across Turkey. Yet he is also one of its causes. Courting the nationalist vote, Mr Erdogan has ruled out peace talks with the PKK. Responding to PKK attacks against security targets in 2015, he inflamed the conflict by arresting Kurdish politicians, pulverising towns in the southeast, and displacing some 500,000 people.
Alevi problems deeper than they seem, opinion leaders agree
On the first day of the 30th Abant Platform meeting on Friday on the Alevis issue in Turkey, Alevi and Sunni intellectuals and opinion leaders agreed that the problems date back to centuries ago and are more complicated than they seem. The event, titled “Searching for peace and a future together,” brought together representatives of various Alevi communities as well as Alevi and Sunni pundits, journalists and academics in an effort to have a comprehensive debate on one of the lingering problems of Turkish society.
Woman sent to prison on coup charges hours after surgery
Ayşe Bulut Yanılma, a female teacher who used to work at a prep-school affiliated with Turkey’s Gülen group, has been arrested by a Turkish court hours after she had a surgery at a Kocaeli hospital.
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
Arresting police to make Erdoğan happy
Hopefully the Gulen movement will help change the American values
Fethullah Gülen’s Statement on the Shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada
Turkey arrests Fethullah Gulen’s barber from 26 years ago
Scholars to discuss tolerance at Hizmet Movement conference in Taiwan
Turkish PM calls for boycott of Gülen movement’s schools
