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

Kimse Yok Mu presents gifts to 8,000 children in Diyarbakır

İSMAIL AVCI, DIYARBAKIR Turkish humanitarian aid organization Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody There) has delivered gifts to 8,000 children from poor families in the province of Diyarbakır to help them enjoy Eid al-Fitr, the three-day religious festival that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. It is a tradition to buy new clothes […]

Gulenists dismissed, purged, and tortured: Canadian Immigration Board

The findings of IRB indicated that detainees in Turkey have faced different forms of torture and ill-treatment. They include severe beatings, threats of sexual assault and actual sexual assault, electric shocks, waterboarding, punches/kicking, blows with objects, falaqa [foot beating], threats and verbal abuse, being forced to strip naked, rape with objects and other sexual violence or threats thereof, sleep deprivation, stress positions, and extended blindfolding and/or handcuffing for several days.

How Erdogan is covering up the corruption scandal

In a blunt violation of Turkish laws and ethical norms, authorities removed nearly 100 police chiefs, who were either involved in the graft raids or pose a possible risk to the government. Two additional prosecutors were appointed to supervise the case, a move mostly interpreted by experts as an attempt to control the judicial process. The government has launched an unprecedented witch-hunt in public institutions and continues to purge any bureaucrat it believes could be cooperative with prosecutors in the graft investigation. Four ministers whose names were linked to these investigations refused to step down despite calls from the opposition.

Turkey seizes another baklava maker over coup charges, appoints deputy governor as caretaker

An Istanbul court ruled that the state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) takes over the administration of Hasan Gultekin Gaziantep Baklavacisi, an 8-store baklava chain. The decision was made as part of an investigation into the Gulen movement. Turkish government has already taken over more than 800 companies either by confiscating or seizing them.

Woman detained along with 40-day-old baby while visiting jailed husband

Zehra Elbir, a former court clerk who was earlier dismissed from her job in the government’s post-coup purge of state institutions, was detained only 40 days after she gave birth to her second child during a visit to her husband in prison.

Turkish PM heads to Brussels for tough talks with EU

Although the prime minister argues that an ongoing corruption and graft probe engulfing his own ministers is simply a plot hatched by an “illegal gang” that he describes as “parallel state” operated by Fethullah Gülen, a cleric in self-exile in the U.S., EU officials have made clear that such rhetoric has not been bought in Brussels.

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

Representatives of Abrahamic religions meet in Iftar in Antioch

Will Turkish corruption scandal lead to return of military to politics?

Shahbaz lays foundation stone of Pak-Turk school

Turkish schools in Romania celebrate 20th year

Political life and NGOs in Turkey: Journalists and Writers Foundation

Turkish woman returned to prison with newborn 4 days after birth

Kemalo-Islamists versus civil society and Hizmet

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News