A Chat with Vonya Womack, a Human Rights Activist and Expert on Turkey and Its [Gulen Follower] Refugees
Date posted: December 20, 2019
RICH FISHER
Following a recent coup attempt, more than 100,000 people were arrested and dismissed from their jobs in the Republic of Turkey. Turkey is also the world’s largest jailer of journalists; 300+ are now behind bars. Our guest is an expert on these and related matters: Vonya Womack teaches at Cabrini University in Pennsylvania and spoke recently at the Raindrop Turkish House in Broken Arrow, OK.
She spoke about her work as a human rights activist and about how she recently visited with Turkish political refugees in Greece. She tells us about these adventures on StudioTulsa.
Gov’t’s hate campaign against Kimse Yok Mu draws condemnations
Various segments of the society, including politicians, volunteers and legal experts, continue to express frustration at a recent government decision to remove the status of public interest of Kimse Yok Mu, the largest volunteer and global aid organization based in Turkey.
Turkish police brutally torture suspect over Gulen links
One of the most torture incidents reported province is Afyon in Turkey. Afyon Police brutally tortures suspects over Gulen links. One of the victims who is a teacher in this video tells about tortures he went through.
Approval rate of Turkish schools abroad at 78 percent
Research company Veritas conducted a survey in July 2013 with 4,296 people in face-to-face interviews in 42 provinces in an effort to measure the approval rate of the Turkish Olympiads that are organized annually.
Accordingly, 67 percent of the respondents expressed a positive opinion of these language olympiads while only 8 percent expressed a negative view.
Erdogan’s diplomats have become ‘Gulenist-busters’
A diplomat told me that there was no way he would do what Tayyip Erdogan was asking him to do. It was against everything he held dear: chasing one’s own citizens without any credible evidence. Soon, many diplomats who refused to turn into Gulenist-hunters were not promoted, demoted or, worse, expelled from the ministry.
Turkey’s once-worldly aims falter, even close allies concerned
Power appears to have gone to the prime minister’s head. Angling to become president in order to extend his rule, Erdogan is foolishly profiling and purging former friends in the Hizmet movement, recently firing hundreds of government employees who are allegedly (no one knows for sure as there’s no evidence) sympathetic to the movement’s founder, Fethullah Gulen
Exiled Turkish Leader Gulen Slams Erdogan for Coup Attempt in Report
A coup attempt in Turkey last July that killed more than 300 people was an “outrageous, heinous scenario constructed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his accomplices,” Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen said this week.
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
The role of civil society in Turkey’s democratization
8-year-old cancer patient departs to Germany for treatment without parents due to ongoing travel ban
8,480 Turkish nationals sought asylum in Germany in 2017
‘A bridge should not demolish other bridges,’ says scholar Gülen
Kimse Yok Mu provided aid to 14,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey
Turkey’s post-coup purge and persecution makes no exception for children
