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.
What ‘struggle for power’? [Between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and the Fethullah Gülen movement ]
A “Fethullahist” parallel state is a conspiracy theory par excellence, exploited by secular as well as Islamist fundamentalists and particularly by the Erdoğan government which vindicates once again the dictum that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Body of Turkish woman fleeing to Greece found weeks after boat capsized
Turkish authorities have found the body of Aslı Doğan, a Turkish woman who went missing after a refugee boat carrying eight people capsized in the river that marks the border of Turkey and Greece on Feb. 13, 2018.
Another AK Party deputy, Muhammed Çetin, resigns in protest
Çetin reportedly asked AK Party deputies Volkan Bozkır and Ali Aşlık about their shoebox numbers. His joke prompted other deputies to tell the incident to the party administration, which outraged with the joke and referred Çetin to the disciplinary committee with request of expulsion.
The more we learn, the more we are the same
During my stay in Turkey, I met with many business leaders and academics that provide funding for schools and universities based on this philosophy. As one businessman told me, “Educated people can understand each other.”
Unmasking Turkey’s most wanted man
Gülen had been charged after the military coups in 1971 and 1980, and again in the late 1990s. Gülen was acquitted of the charges three times.
Erdogan’s persecution: Mother with infant under arrest until husband surrenders self
Dilek Sağlam, a teacher and mother of a 10-month-old baby, has been under arrest since June 12 because her husband could not be found by the police. Sağlam has a 5-year-old daughter who is unable to continue her treatment due to her mother’s arrest. Sağlam’s father was told that his daughter would be released only if his son-in-law surrenders to the police.
Latest News
Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice
Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say
Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?
Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case
A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook
Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?
Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis
University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links
In Case You Missed It
Fethullah Gülen’s Statement on the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
Brazil court orders release of Gulen-linked businessman accused by Ankara of terrorism
Top AK Party official likens Gülen’s stance on peace talks to that of Mandela
Turkish preacher isn’t running terrorist gang
Biden says US courts to decide on Gülen’s extradition
Hizmet Symposium: Academics Foster Peacebuilding Advocacy