Canadian rights advocate says Turkey’s post-coup crackdown amounts to genocide


Date posted: July 11, 2017

Turkey’s post-coup witch-hunt of the Gulen movement followers is tantamount to genocide, Renee Vaugeois, a Canadian human rights specialist said in a recent interview.

“This a targeted war on a specific group of people in Turkey and to me that speaks to genocide,” Vaugeois, the executive director of the Edmonton-based John Humphrey Centre for Peace & Human Rights, told state-run CBC news on Monday.

“We need to support those that are putting themselves in danger to try and figure out how to save their families,” she concluded.

According to CBC news, Vaugeois has recently sent a letter to Canada’s immigration minister Ahmed Hussen urging him to expedite the approval of the permanent residency of a Turkish citizen who fled the witch hunt in Turkey in the aftermath of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt.

Turkish government accuses the Gulen movement of masterminding the coup attempt while the latter denies involvement. The government has already detained more than 120,000 people over links to the movement, with many human rights groups reported torture and maltreatment on those detainees.

Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tried to mobilize Turkish citizens to report Gulen followers to police. Erdoğan said in a public speech last month 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.”

On some occasions, pro-government shopkeepers across Turkey hung banners on their premises that read: “Gulen sympathizers not allowed inside.”

Source: Turkey Purge , July 11, 2017

Tags: | | | |


Related News

Pro-AKP media flop as corruption charges swell

This may be a Gulen Movement attack on the government. However, one cannot help but ask who gave the Gulen Movement so much access in the government to begin with? Also, the government has been screaming “show us evidence” to all questions of financing and allegations of corruption. Now it seems there is some sort of evidence — should not those be dealt with first? Shouldn’t the AKP come clean with the Turkish public first, and then fight its battle with the Gulen Movement or other “foreign” provocateurs?

State discrimination against Hizmet movement sympathizers

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government is aiming to take all steps to finish off Hizmet movement sympathizers by any means. Discrimination is one of these steps. Discrimination is a human rights violation. I would like to share five of my personal experiences, of many more, to show what kind of discrimination is being committed against the movement’s sympathizers.

Turkey’s New Maps Are Reclaiming the Ottoman Empire

Erdogan, by contrast, has given voice to an alternative narrative in which Ataturk’s willingness in the Treaty of Lausanne to abandon territories such as Mosul and the now-Greek islands in the Aegean was not an act of eminent pragmatism but rather a betrayal. The suggestion, against all evidence, is that better statesmen, or perhaps a more patriotic one, could have gotten more.

Lawyer of arrested officers detained for Gülen movement propaganda

Lawyer Kemal Uçar, known for his critical statements concerning July 15, 2016 coup attempt cases, has been detained as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, Milliyet daily reported. Uçar used to share messages on social media that the ByLock mobile phone app cannot be used as evidence to arrest people. Uçar said on a TV program that 52 of 58 casings found in Taksim on the coup night were not fired by soldiers according to an official report.

Gov’t discriminates against Hizmet-affiliated private schools

Some private schools affiliated with the Hizmet movement, a faith-based social movement inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, have been prevented from accessing government incentives. According to an official list published by the Education Ministry on Monday, many high-achieving private schools did not make the cut to be eligible for financial aid from the government.

Woman dismissed from job because she had surgery at hospital targeted by gov’t

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.

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

Medialog Platform hosts digital media experts from Europe and Asia

Abduction of Kacmaz family – An act of high-handedness

Dialogue and distrust: on the predicament of Gulen-inspired organisations in the UK

Somalia: Somaliland rules out closure of Gulen-linked school

Is Nigeria now a part of Turkey?

Exhibit lets Iraqi women tell stories of heartbreak and hope

Paralyzed by ill-treatment in Sivas prison, Turkish police officer dies at 33

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News