Fethullah Gulen’s “old friend” detained by İzmir police despite suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s disease

Date posted: January 23, 2020

An 81-year-old Turkish man, who is known as a “longtime friend of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, was detained by police in the Turkish province of İzmir on Monday due to his links to the Gülen group.

According to the Gulen-friendly tr724 news website, Yusuf Pekmezci, who suffers from advenced Alzheimer’s disease, high blood pressure and osteoporosis, was in hiding for three years.

He is currenlty being held in police custody.

Pekmezci came to public attention with a 2014 interview he gave in which he talked about his love for the movement and Fethullah Gülen.

Source: Turkey Purge , January 22, 2020

Tags: Human rights | Persecution of Hizmet by Erdogan | Turkey |

Related News

Pro-government Yeni Şafak daily fires critical columnist

Pro-government newspaper Yeni Şafak has fired journalist Osman Özsoy after the columnist hinted government pressure on the newspaper to let him go on his Twitter account on Monday.

CSOs slam ongoing black propaganda against Hizmet movement

The Law and Democracy Platform, which includes 60 CSOs in İzmir province, held a press conference to protest the polarizing language used by government officials. The representative of the platform, Ömer Mustafa Aytekin, said there have been very unpleasant developments that risk democracy and the rule of law in Turkey.

American reporters got an intriguing glimpse into the political mind-set in Turkey

Turkish leaders said they were astonished that they had so far been unsuccessful in persuading the United States Justice Department to even ask a federal judge to extradite Fethullah Gulen. The Turkish government said it had provided the United States with extensive proof against Mr. Gulen, who has denied involvement. But Turkish officials refused in several interviews to publicize a single piece of that evidence.

Gov’t tries to frame Hizmet with secret statements from shady sources

The alleged government-plot against members of the faith-based Hizmet movement, disclosed in June by former Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin, was further instigated with questionable testimonies obtained from secret witnesses, informants and anonymous complainants leading to criminal prosecutions apparently orchestrated by political authorities.

Turkey’s Erdogan takes cue from Hitler, Stalin and Khomeini

There is something deeply disturbing about the direction in which Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party are taking Turkey. Writing in this newspaper last week, John Lyons compared the sweeping purges to McCarthyism in the US in the 1950s. That was altogether the wrong analogy.

Gülen lawyers file complaint against prosecutors over wrongful probe

Lawyers representing Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen have filed a complaint against two İstanbul prosecutors who are conducting an investigation into their client, accusing them of violating procedural rules in the manner the probe is being conducted. The prosecutors have also lied on many occasions in writing, according to Gülen’s lawyers, who say that the prosecutors […]