Teachers detained on coup charges while casting votes in referendum
Date posted: April 17, 2017
A.A. and T.D., two teachers who were earlier dismissed from their posts as part of a post-coup crackdown on the Gülen movement, were taken into custody on Sunday at a school in Malatya where they stopped to cast their votes in a referendum on a switch to an executive presidency.
Turks are voting on whether to shift from a parliamentary system of governance to an executive presidency that is expected to give sweeping powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Malatya police detained A.A. and T.D. over links to the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding a July 15 coup attempt. The movement strongly denies the accusation.
Meanwhile, E.O. a former partner of a private school that was closed down by the government after July 15 over similar charges was also taken into custody in Trabzon’s Arsin district.
Police also detained F.G. in Malatya while 4 others were taken into custody in Adana due to alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) near the polling place.
Smear campaign against Gülen fails after new details emerge on eavesdropping
The defamation campaign against the Gülen or Hizmet movement, which the Turkish president and his political Islamist Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government accuse of illegally wiretapping government officials, collapsed after it became clear that foreign security and intelligence agencies were involved in eavesdropping on senior Turkish officials.
The story of the boy who cried wolf
The Sabah newspaper greeted the news of the 10-hour National Security Council (MGK) meeting with the headline “Parallel structure added to red book.” But this was, of course, a complete lie. For a long time now, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been indicating that the Hizmet movement — which he refers to as the “parallel structure” — would be officially added to the National Security Strategy Concept Paper as a “domestic threat.” This is a part of his personal vendetta and Erdoğan has kept up this propaganda war even as president of Turkey.
The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) has changed the scoring system it uses to evaluate student grades in science olympiads it sponsors, giving private schools a smaller coefficient and thereby placing students from these schools at a disadvantage.
Why I Asked National Security Adviser to Stop Turkish Espionage on Nigeria
If members of Hizmet have done anything wrong, since they are in Nigeria, the Turkish government, through its embassy here can report them with hard evidence to the Nigerian security service. The fact that they have resorted to underhand tactics means they have nothing credible against these innocent fellows.
Local Turks [in Chicago] fear for safety of friends, family overseas after failed coup
“You see the pictures, ears cut off, eyes are bruised and noses are broken; they’re putting those pictures out,” Parlak said. “(Erdogan is) saying to the whole world, ‘I have the power and I’m going to do anything in my power and nobody can stop me,’ and that’s the part that is scary.”
Lawyer put behind bars along with 3-month-old baby
An Istanbul lawyer, identified with her initials O.E.H., was put in pretrial detention along with her three-month-old baby as part of an investigation into the Gulen movement, media said.
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