Erdoğan: Our people will punish Gülenists in the streets if they ever get out of jail
Date posted: June 8, 2017
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a public speech on Wednesday that if people affiliated with Turkey’s Gülen group are released from prison after completing their prison terms, the Turkish public will “punish them in the streets.”
The speech drew strong reactions from international human rights advocacy groups as the president openly called for “genocide” by declaring “the entire group as the enemy” and justified its destruction.
Erdoğan said in his speech:
“If they [Gülenists] are released after completing their prison sentences, every time they see them in the streets, my people will punish them. They will spit in their faces. And they [Gülenists] are going to drown in my people’s spittle.”
Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15 that killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen group.
The group strongly denies any involvement.
According to a report by the state-run Anadolu news agency on May 28, 154,694 individuals have been detained and 50,136 have been jailed due to alleged Gülen links since the failed coup attempt.
“There are currently 221,607 inmates in prisons. Prison capacity is 203,000, making them 9 percent over capacity,” said Justice Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Basri Bağcı informed Parliament last month, saying that some inmates have to sleep in shifts.
President Erdogan says the state of emergency might be needed for another year to crush the “terrorist” threat. More than 130 media outlets have been shut down, the pro-Kurdish IMC TV the latest victim. The authorities have started releasing 38,000 prisoners, to make way for the new arrests.
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“As parents, as we are concerned about the way the principal of this school is treated, and we expect information on the further development of the situation regarding the treatment of the principal,” parents stated, adding that they request to be informed on the reasons for the arrest as soon as possible.
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Workers who were fired from their jobs at İzmir’s Ege University lost their jobs because they had a baby or received medical treatment at the now-closed, Gülen-linked Şifa Hospital in İzmir, according to a report in the Evrensel daily on Friday.
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Turkey is at a pivotal point in its history following the failed coup attempt of July 15. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having survived the coup plot, won fresh legitimacy and gained a new ally: religious fervor in the streets. Mr. Erdogan can use this impetus either to become an executive-style president, or he can encourage the forces of religion to take over the country, crowning himself as an Islamic leader.
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