Couple jailed for watching Fethullah Gülen videos at Internet cafe

Date posted: April 20, 2017

An Ankara couple has been sent to prison after they were caught watching videos belonging to US-based Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen at an internet cafe earlier this week.

Doğan news agency reported on Wednesday that acting on a tip from the internet café owner, police tailed the suspects — Y.M. and M.M. — and detained later them for watching the videos.

The suspects were reportedly sent to an Ankara prison early on Wednesday.

The Turkish government accuses Fethullah Gülen and the Gülen movement of being behind the July 15 coup attempt. Some 115,000 have been detained over Gülen links since last summer while critics often raise the issue of guilt by association. Gülen, meanwhile, strongly denies any involvement.

Source: Turkey Purge , April 19, 2017

Tags: Freedoms | Human rights | Persecution of Hizmet by Erdogan | Turkey |

Related News

German Greens MEP backs Gülen school official’s plea against extradition

“To be a teacher is not a crime,” said Rebecca Harms, a German politician who is current head of the Greens-European Free Alliance in the EU parliament. She was speaking at a press conference in Tbilisi after visiting Mustafa Emre Cabuk in prison on Sunday.

The Pigeon, The Finger, and Hizmet’s ‘Inevitable Ambiguity’

Hizmet combines characteristics that we are not used to seeing combined in such a way: faith-inspired (in motivation) yet faith-neutral (in so many activities), informed by Qur’anic principles yet inclusive and non-missionary, predominantly Muslim but proactively engaging with wider society and responding constructively to modern and post-modern ideas and lifestyles.

Turkish coup d’état: a failed test for the EU

Once the purges started, however, the game changed. The EU should oppose the purges as a symptom of an authoritarian turn and attempt of centralization of power by the ruling elite. By definition, a coup d’état is an illegal overthrow of the governing machine in place so to trigger a regime change. The response to a golpe by the ruling government should then be used as an opportunity to consolidate the power of the legitimately elected administration and give evidence of national unity.

The tragedy in Soma will also be felt in politics

Mr Erdogan has launched what he admits is “a witch hunt”, demoting and reshuffling hundreds of Gulenists within the bureaucracy.

Slandering Turkish schools is treason according to well-known politician

In an interview with the Cihan news agency, Durak showed reaction to Erdoğan’s order to the ambassadors and he visited some of the Turkish schools in foreign countries. “Children of prime ministers and presidents and high-level bureaucrats are sent to these schools opened in Africa and many parts of the world… Many significant people are given education in these schools. I am of the opinion denouncing these schools to the ambassadors instead of supporting them is equal to treason,” said Durak.

U.S. State Department, Citing Security, Suspends [Fulbright] Teaching Program in Turkey

In the wake of the coup attempt, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has conducted widespread purges of perceived adversaries. As a result, every university dean in Turkey was forced to resign. Some experts have raised questions about whether the university system will be able to function. The ripple effects to American academics are just starting to emerge.