Turkey investigating 4,167 Gülen followers in 110 countries


Date posted: April 24, 2018

At least 4,167 people in 110 countries are being investigated in Turkey over their links to the Gülen movement, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Thursday.

An arrest request issued by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office for three Turkish nationals, forcibly returned from Gabon to Turkey earlier this month, has revealed that Turkish prosecutors are investigating 4,167 people in 110 countries over their links to the movement.

The three men were detained after being brought to Turkey in a joint operation by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and local Gabonese law enforcement.

The Istanbul prosecutor demanded that the court overseeing the trio’s case arrest them, saying that 4,167 people including the three have been under investigation for some time.

Eighty people affiliated the Gülen movement have been captured and brought to Turkey from 18 countries, Turkish government spokesman Bekir Bozdağ said on April 5.

The Turkish government accuses the group of masterminding a July 15, 2016 coup attempt, although the movement denies any involvement. More than 120,000 people have been detained and some 55,000 put in pretrial detention, while over 145,000 have lost their jobs amid the government’s post-coup crackdown on people deemed to have ties to the group.

A number of countries including Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Georgia and Myanmar have handed over academics, businessmen and school principals upon the Turkish government’s request despite the fact that some of those victims already had refugee status with the United Nations.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s lawyer Hüseyin Aydın said earlier this month that Turkish intelligence officers could be involved in more abductions around the world “in the coming days.”

A total of 14,640 Turkish nationals claimed asylum in European Union countries in 2017, according to Eurostat data. The corresponding number was 10,105 in 2016 and only 4,180 in 2015.

“With reports of Turkish intelligence activities in multiple countries, including other kidnapping plots, governments should become much more willing to offer Turkish citizens asylum and must look very skeptically upon Turkish government requests for arrest and extradition,” Freedom House’s Nate Schenkkan wrote in The Washington Post on April 1.

Meanwhile, US-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the arrest of Turkish nationals in Kosovo showed a callous disregard for human rights and rule of law.

The statements by HRW and Freedom House came on the heels of an MIT operation that captured six Turkish nationals, one doctor and five educators, working for a group of schools affiliated with the movement in Kosovo.

 

Source: Turkish Minute , April 20, 2018


Related News

Astonishing questions about the failed coup attempt in Turkey

Many people watching the stunning events in Turkey believe that the coup attempt was nothing but a pure ‘theater.’ The leader of the coup was a pro-Erdogan General Mehmet Disli, brother of AKP deputy Saban Disli, who defines himself as Erdogan’s confidante. The poorly-planned coup attempt has started with the capture of Istanbul’s Bosporus Bridge. […]

Interview about Hizmet Movment at Maxwell School of Syracuse University

Tosca Bruno-Van Vijfeijken, Director of  Transnational NGO Initiative at Maxwell School of Syracuse University inteviewd Dr. Alp Aslandogan, President of the Alliance for Shared Values. This interview took place before Dr. Aslandogan’s lecture at Maxwell School on Hizmet Movement on September 22, 2015.

Turkish School Leader Abducted, and Released, in Mongolia

Mr. Ganbat, the Mongolian general director of the Empathy foundation, which runs the Mongolia-Turkish schools, said the Mongolian police told him that the vehicle had a fake license plate and that three masked people were inside.

Afghan, Pakistani leaders praise Turkish schools at Ankara summit

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made their remarks in response to a question at a joint news conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gül following a trilateral summit in Ankara that focused on security.
“Afghan children are offered high-quality education services. We are very happy about that,” Karzai said, while Sharif said the schools “are doing a perfect job.”

“Like a Storm”: Deportations Stun Turks in Kosovo

The families of six Turkish nationals hastily deported from Kosovo to Turkey in a secretive intelligence operation speak of violence, fear and uncertainty.

Turkey Systematically And Deliberately Jails Women As Part Of Fear And Intimidation Campaign

Thousands of women, many with small children to take care of, were jailed in Turkey in an unprecedented crackdown and subjected to torture and ill-treatment in detention centers and prisons as part of the government’s systematic campaign of intimidation and persecution of critics and opponents.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Erdogan’s Turkey: ‘You are either with us or you are terrorists’

Family, friends losing hope as Calgary imam arrested in Turkey remains imprisoned

The more we learn, the more we are the same

‘Power struggle with Gulen movement weakens Erdogan’

Turkish newspaper ‘Zaman’ shuts down in Germany amid ‘threats’

Why does the West love the Gülen movement so much?

A Cry of the Heart for the Victims of Hurricane Katrina

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News