Turkey arrests Fethullah Gulen’s barber from 26 years ago
Date posted: April 15, 2017
At least 16 people have been detained in the western province of Izmir, including a 50-year-old hairdresser, identified as İ.D., who used to give haircut to Fethullah Gülen during 1990s.
Police carried out operations to round up 16 suspects in Adana, Antalya and Hatay provinces as well as in Izmir’s Cesme district, as part of an investigation into the Gulen movement, over the past days.
According to state-run Anadolu news agency on Friday, I.D. was put in pre-trial arrest along with 2 others over charges of membership to a terrorist organization while 5 were released on judicial control.
The remaining 8 suspects were still waiting to give their testimonies to the prosecutor on Friday.
The government accuses Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen movement of being behind the July 15 coup attempt. Some 115,000 have been detained over Gulen links since last summer while critics often raise the issue of guilt by association. Gulen, meanwhile, denies any involvement.
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President Erdogan needs a victory so he can prove to the public and supporters that Fethullah Gulen was behind the failed coup and therefore get him extradited, says Ibrahim Dogus, the founder of the Center for Turkey Studies in London.
Gülen, Hizmet, the state and the AKP
Gülen has placed much emphasis on education. With a new ijtihad (independent reasoning), he always stated that instead of building a mosque, religious businessmen must establish secular schools that will educate the future’s engineers, doctors, lawyers, journalists and yes, police, prosecutors and judges.
Turkey’s anti-Gulen crackdown continues with Yemeni students after Nigerians
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Media freedom in Turkey takes another blow
On Dec. 25, Mahir Zeynalov sent out two tweets. “The first tweet contained a link to a news report about the second wave of a massive graft operation and how police blocked a raid involving more than 40 suspects, including Saudi businessman Yasin al-Qadi — listed as a specially designated terrorist by the United States,” Today’s Zaman reported Jan. 31. Zeynalov’s tweets are no longer present on his Twitter account. “’Turkish prosecutors order police to arrest al-Qaeda affiliates, Erdogan’s appointed police chiefs refuse to comply,’ read the first tweet. In the second tweet, Zeynalov shared a news report detailing al-Qaeda suspects’ escape from the country after police chiefs blocked the raid on Dec. 25.”
CSOs slam smear campaign against Hizmet, call on PM to stop hate speech
A large-scale dark propaganda campaign has been conducted by some circles close to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government against the Hizmet movement and Gülen, particularly since a corruption scandal erupted in December of 2013 in which three Cabinet ministers’ sons, many state bureaucrats and also well-known businessmen were implicated.
Will Turkish corruption scandal lead to return of military to politics?
The tactics the government has developed to defend itself against the graft investigations and their implications have once again brought the role of the military, military tutelage and potential coup attempts back onto Turkey’s agenda.
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