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.
Hizmet, the social movement inspired by the neo-Sufi thinker Fetullah Gülen, is currently being dismembered by the autocratic president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He accuses Gülen of ordering a coup attempt on 15th July 2016, saying it was was led by Hizmet members in the army.
Is the Hizmet movement resisting normalization?
Accusing the Hizmet movement, which insistently demands the fulfillment of the steps towards democratization which I referred to above and contributes to the process of change as evidenced by its stance in the referendum, of serving as a parallel structure indirectly means: “I will not change myself and introduce universal reforms. You have to live with this painful fact for the normalization of the country and take your steps accordingly.”
Who speaks for Islam in Turkey?
Huseyin Gulerce voiced deep concern about Erdogan’s criticism of Fethullah Gulen “as a fake prophet” at a meeting of the Religious Affairs Directorate. Gulerce asked, “Would not the stability of the country be harmed if the mosques are polarized as such?” He concluded that politics have dominated religion.
Pro-gov’t daily: Turkey, Russia could conduct joint operation to abduct Gülen
Turkey and Russia could carry out a joint operation to abduct US-based Turkish-Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen to Turkey due to Gülen’s alleged role in the assassination of a Russian ambassador in December 2016 as well as a failed coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016, the pro-government Akşam daily reported.
Coup and Countercoup in Turkey
The coup was doomed to fail from the beginning. To say it was amateurish would be insulting to all amateurs. Assuming there were some sympathizers of Gülen within the armed forces, the sheer size of the post-coup dismissals make absolutely no sense.
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