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.
The Gülen (a.k.a Hizmet) movement, a faith-based community, has been subject to political persecution for more than two years by the Turkish government since they stood up against corruption and injustice under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan has publicly called for a “witch hunt,” and arrests, threats, and harassments have now become a routine for participants and sympathizers of the movement.
Turkish PM Erdoğan’s way worries and puzzles
Erdoğan’s political calculations for his strategy do not seem to make much sense to many. Why has he chosen to alienate the Hizmet movement now and not after the elections? Why is he even more furious with the remaining independent media than before? Is he doing all this and others to win or is this a heavy gamble, in despair, to lose or win everything?
When the masks have fallen
It seems that the judiciary will be forced to investigate the claims of a so-called illegal organization, and sham trials will be performed to intimidate the Hizmet movement and cover up the corruption claims that become public on Dec. 17, 2013, by taking tactics from the former Ergenekon supporters nested within the army, the bureaucracy, business circles, the media and the judiciary.
Hizmet movement and perceptions
We are going through a very critical period. We need the common sense and support of all the precious members of the Hizmet movement as we have never needed them before. We must protect our democratic gains. I pen this article as a person who closely sided with the Hizmet movement during the attacks of Ergenekon — a clandestine organization nested within the state trying to overthrow or manipulate the democratically elected government — and the deep state, and who backed its justified objections to the government’s plan to shut down the prep schools.
US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, the man blamed by Turkey for a failed coup attempt a year ago, on Friday again denied any involvement in what he called a “despicable putsch,” and called on Ankara to end its “witch hunt” of his followers.
Abant Platform discusses thriving relations between Turkey and Africa
SEVGİ AKARÇEŞME, ABANT The unprecedented level of interaction between Turkey and Africa was the dominant theme of the 29th meeting of the Abant Platform on Friday, which convened with the theme of Africa in Abant, Bolu. Participants from Turkey and Africa in the fields of academia, politics and the media agreed that mutual understanding is […]
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