Turkey blacklists 68 companies including Germany’s Daimler, BASF over Gülen links
Date posted: July 21, 2017
Turkey has named 68 companies as supporters of the Gülen movement, in a list sent to Germany’s federal police, according to Die Zeit weekly.
The list included a Turkish fast food restaurant and a late-night food store, Die Zeit said.
This was sent to German authorities several weeks ago, the newspaper said recalling that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced to have sent 4,500 files on alleged supporters of the movement to Germany and demanded that they be extradited to Turkey.
“In Berlin, the list is described as ‘absurd’ and ‘ridiculous’,” the weekly added. Meanwhile Turkey’s Deputy PM Mehmet Simsek said on Thursday that Turkey is not investigating Daimler and BASF.
At home, Turkey has confiscated 966 companies with assets of $11 billion over links to the movement so far.
The liberal Taraf daily, where I write a column, is one of the few independent newspapers in this country. Those who don’t know the Turkish media well need to know that media outlets are largely owned by private holdings which have close ties to the government. Thus, Turkish newspapers need to consider whether their reporting would harm their bosses’ business connections with the government.
America’s Public Radio International maps out Turkish gov’t persecution of Gülen movement
“Nate Schenkkan is with Freedom House and an expert on Turkey. He says Gülenists have been left jobless, with no chance of restarting their careers. “For the vast majority of the people in the Gülen movement, it’s quite clear. They had nothing to do with any of this, whether it’s the coup attempt or any other kind of violence,” he said.
TUSKON warns against probing policemen under ‘shadow of politics’
The Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) said in a statement on Tuesday that the group is closely following the developments after the July 22 raid with “concern” and said it is disturbed of a possibility that the legal proceeding will continue with a number of illegal actions under the “shadow of politics.”
Celebrating Ramadan with Turkish asylum seekers
Haldun and his wife, Funda, fled Turkey about two years ago with their three daughters and are now seeking political asylum in the United States because if they go back to Turkey they face arrest and likely torture. Once a successful manufacturer of washing machine products, Haldun, Funda and their children are now a family without a country; their factory turned over to a government trustee, their passports taken away, and their property and belongings nationalized.
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.
Erdoğan’s propagandist think tanks
Erdoğan’s government coming after the strongest civic group, the Hizmet movement, in Turkey is not an isolated incident but rather fits a pattern of how Erdoğan defines democracy and how he handles nongovernmental organizations in the country.
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