Human rights group urges foreign gov’ts to ensure safety of Gülen followers


Date posted: December 28, 2017

Virginia-based human rights organization Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST) in a piece on HuffPost has called on foreign governments to ensure the safety of participants of the Gülen, or Hizmet, movement.

Followers of the faith-based Gülen movement have been the main target of the Turkish government’s recently engaging in “illegal extraterritorial and extrajudicial actions … to silence dissidents in other countries from various ideologies,” said AST.

The movement, inspired by Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, has been accused by the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of orchestrating a failed coup in July 2016, an allegation strongly denied by Gülen.

A December report issued by the group states that “even though actions of the Turkish government against dissidents including the Gulen Movement are not appreciated by many countries around the world, there are some states who are in cooperation with Turkey neglecting human rights and fundamental freedoms,” citing the illegal detention and sometimes deportation of movement followers in Afghanistan, Sudan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Georgia, Myanmar and Malaysia.

“What is common in all these countries mentioned above is that human rights violations and corruption have already been a pattern and part of the government culture. It is safe to analyze that Erdogan Government tends to infiltrate the government bodies of these countries bribing the local officials and politicians,” says AST.

“In conclusion, AST urges foreign governments to take all the necessary steps to ensure safety to these people before it is too late. ‘Security officers must be aware of the potential risks. Officials working for the government abroad must be watched closely, they must be prevented if they are in preparation of any harm. Lastly, both individuals and organizations that are deemed to be Hizmet participants must be provided extra protection when there is an imminent risk targeting them’,” AST concludes in its report.

Source: Turkish Minute , December 18, 2017

Tags: | |


Related News

Anti-police operation is gov’t attempt to take revenge for graft probe

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has recently been engaged in a bitter fight with the Hizmet movement. This conflict intensified after Dec. 17, 2013, when a major graft operation targeting government ministers and connected businessmen became public. The prime minister claims the operation was orchestrated by the Hizmet movement in an effort to overthrow his government. However, he has not provided any evidence to prove this claim, and the movement denies the accusation.

TÜBİTAK official says forced to make changes to bugging device report

The former head of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey’s (TÜBİTAK) Research Center for Advanced Technologies on Informatics and Information Security (BİLGEM) has said he was forced to make changes in a report as part of an investigation into a “bugging device” found at the prime minister’s office.

PM Erdoğan once defended Hizmet, said it was Feb. 28 [military coup] victim

Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has recently accused the faith-based Hizmet movement inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen of cooperating with coup perpetrators during the Feb. 28, 1997 post-modern coup era, defended the same movement at a parliamentary coup commission in 2012, when he said the movement’s followers had been victimized during the coup.

Parallel vs. Persian structure within the Turkish state

Despite all these accusations, the Erdoğan government has not produced any evidence to substantiate his allegations of a parallel structure within the judiciary, police or any other state institution, nor of officials receiving orders from anywhere other than their own legal superiors, nor has he or his government brought any of these charges to court.

Police raid successful Gülen-inspired schools, kindergarten in eastern Turkey

As one of the numerous raids against the schools affiliated with Gülen movement, popularly known as Hizmet Movement, two schools and a kindergarten were raided by police along with inspectors on Friday morning.

Gulen Accuses Erdogan of ‘Hijacking’ Kosovo Deportees

Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish preacher who has lived in voluntary exile in the US since 1999, on Tuesday criticized the deportation of six Turkish citizens from Kosovo to Turkey in an operation conducted by Turkish state intelligence, likening it to a hijacking.

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

Fethullah Gulen’s Message of Condemnation and Condolences for St. Petersburg Terrorist Attack

Her mother was detained right after her birth, she is now growing up in Athens

Gülen calls for broadening freedoms, improvement in Kurdish rights

Turkey tries to trap Obama with extradition demand [of Mr. Gülen]

We must live with principles of peace and love

Turkish schools and businessmen mobilized for Izmir’s EXPO candidacy

Turkish army profiled Tahşiyeciler as serving al-Qaeda

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News