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.
Deputy slams AK Party with creating crisis as he resigns from party
Announcing his resignation at a press conference in Parliament, İşbilen slammed AK Party leader and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his “dregatory and remarks” against Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and criticized Erdoğan’s government over the corruption scandal.
Gov’t’s hate campaign against Kimse Yok Mu draws condemnations
Various segments of the society, including politicians, volunteers and legal experts, continue to express frustration at a recent government decision to remove the status of public interest of Kimse Yok Mu, the largest volunteer and global aid organization based in Turkey.
Is the Hizmet movement statist or populist?
In the last three years the AK Party established their new “center” with the new statism away from the periphery. The Hizmet movement viewed this change as a new centralization and thus a new statism and tutelage with new political and capitalist actors. Due to this change in attitude, the Hizmet movement broke faith with Erdoğan and the AK Party.
Erdoğan says his gov’t will carry out ‘witch hunt’
There are rumors that the only criteria behind these purges is links to a “parallel state,” a term the government has been using to define the Hizmet movement, which is a grassroots movement based on voluntary participation to spread interfaith dialogue and tolerance, with a particular emphasis on education.
EU, US Have Little Leverage as Turkish Democracy Backslides
“In the big picture, Erdogan knows that the EU needs Turkey and will come back begging for a new agreement on the migrants. That’s why he will play a game of brinksmanship,” said Soner Cagaptay, the director of the Turkish program at The Washington Institute.
Turkey’s post-revolutionary civil war
What does this corruption investigation has anything to do with the AKP-Gülen Movement tension? Well, the prosecutor who apparently led this investigation in big secrecy, Zekeriya Öz, is believed to be a member of the movement. Corruption is a serious matter and the real best defense would be to help bring those who are charged to justice. Meanwhile, the Gülen Movement, normally a civil society group, should help save itself from the image of secrecy and infiltration that it has been drawn into in the past decade.
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
Fethullah Gülen’s Message for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Turkish Olympiad students visit Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek
Islamism is dead!
Fethullah Gülen on Islam, democracy and freedom of speech
Erdogan presses Kyrgyzstan for action against Gulen group
Gov’t attack on Bank Asya taints Turkey’s image
TUSKON event to yield $350 mln in trade with Africa in one day