Defamation – Turkey’s Justice Minister: Gülen Followers Take Christian Names To Infiltrate Western States


Date posted: July 4, 2017

Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ said on Monday that followers of Gülen movement, change their Turkish names in order to infiltrate into the institutions of the Western states.

Speaking with Milliyet daily on Monday, Bozdağ said Gülen movement followers take Christian names and show themselves as members of Christian society in order to infiltrate institutions of the Western states. Underlining that the group has been educating Americans in schools in the US and imposing the ideology of the movement, Bozdağ said “this terror group is a threat to Turkey’s national security as well as a threat to national security of yours (US).”

“F..Ö members change their Turkish names in US. They take Christian names, take different names and join into Christian groups as they are Christian converts in order to gain prestige and power from those groups. There are lots of similar cases in recent days. What I say now is that if you (Western world) don’t take the measures, similar to Turkey took against this group, they will betray you. Why not those who betray their own state and nation, will not betray US and the other states? … They might have simile [at me] saying ‘what is that this minister saying’, but probably they will have to take tougher measures [against Gülen followers] after 15-20 years,” he said.

Since the Turkish government launched a large-scale witch hunt against followers of faith-based Gülen movement, inspired by the views of US-based Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen, the movement has been scapegoated for anything that goes wrong in Turkey, and Gülen sympathizers have been alienated in public by the rhetoric used by ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) leaders and Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Despite Gülen and the movement having denied the accusations, Erdoğan and the government launched a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody. Over 138.000 people have been dismissed from their jobs, more than 106.000 were detained and nearly 53.000 jailed over alleged links to the movement.

Source: Stockholm Center for Freedom , July 3, 2017

Tags: | | |


Related News

Gülen’s lawyers: PM’s only correct statement is that he visited Gülen

Lawyers representing Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen dismissed on Friday remarks made by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that Gülen rejected an invitation from Davutoğlu to return to Turkey on the grounds that “it was not time yet.”

Fethullah Gülen: Erdogan is a Narcissist Dictator, His Main Enemy is Himself

Fethullah Gülen: It is Erdogan who considers me his enemy. I have never considered him as such. I just asked him to keep his promises. His main enemy is himself.

GYV calls on government to respect judiciary amid corruption probe

The government should respect Turkey’s independent judiciary as a corruption probe that has implicated senior members of the ruling party deepens, the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), whose honorary chair is Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, said in a statement published on its website on Monday.

Gulen-linked org’s statement on Turkish Govt’s arrest of pro-Kurdish Parliamentarians

AfSV Statement on Turkish Government’s Arrest of HDP Parliamentarians  Erdogan’s Persecutions Underscore Authoritarian Slide New York (November 9, 2016) – The Alliance for Shared Values is deeply concerned about the arrests of nine members of Turkish Parliament from the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), including the party’s co-chairs Mr. Selahattin Demirtas and Ms. Figen Yuksekdag. […]

Expert: I fear that Turkey is headed to a prolonged period of civil conflict if not civil war

He has become a joke, albeit a dangerous one. He has become Muammar Qadhafi. Turkey is dangerously polarized. We know from Turkish political history that such polarization often leads to violence. I fear that Turkey is headed to a prolonged period of civil conflict if not civil war.

Failed coup in Turkey hits Albany’s Turkish Cultural Center

A failed military coup in Turkey in July continues to reverberate locally with the layoff of the only paid employee at the Turkish Cultural Center of Albany and cuts in its programs, which include language and cooking classes.

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

Baseless allegations damage publicly traded firms

Gülen ‘speechless’ on gov’t action plan against Hizmet movement

AFSV Condemns Erdoğan’s Persecution of the Hizmet Movement

Deputy PM Arınç opens Zaman University in Cambodia

Turkey’s first private Arabic station starts to broadcast

Why couldn’t Bozdağ talk about the parallel structure?

EU and Turkey’s rights abuse

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News