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

Local, foreign participants debate Turkish democracy at Abant platform

22 June 2012 / YONCA POYRAZ DOĞAN, ABANT Even though Turkey has achieved great economic development in the past 10 years, it is still having trouble consolidating its democracy, according to both native and non-native participants of the 27th Abant Platform. In his introductory speech, Sabancı University’s Ersin Kalaycıoğlu said on Friday at the 27th […]

Tariq Ramadan says Erdoğan should practice what he preached to Mubarak

Prominent scholar Tariq Ramadan, grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, has criticized the Turkish prime minister for seeking more power and urged him to rethink staying in power for a longer time. Ramadan said, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once told former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak — that one day he will have to know how to leave — is true for him as well. “[Erdoğan] also needs to get this right.”

Mother of three arrested with baby as police fail to locate teacher husband

A mother of three in the western province of Izmir, Fadime Danışman was arrested along with her 8-month-old baby after police failed to locate her husband, a teacher by profession, as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement.

Turkish army profiled Tahşiyeciler as serving al-Qaeda

The 13 March 2009 report, prepared by Turkish General Staff Intelligence Unit Head, Lieutenant General Hakkı Pekin, reveals the Tahşiyeciler group’s ideology strongly aligned with al-Qaeda, viewing its leader Osama Bin Laden as Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam.

Is [Erdogan’s] Maarif Foundation capable of delivering quality education?

Not only will the Maarif Foundation be unable to accomplish anything conducive and rewarding, it will not be able to prepare the required generation of youth with open-mindedness and critical thinking.

The First Private Kurdish TV Channel in Turkey

President Gül, after watching the demo of the Dünya TV, said that “this is it, Turkey should normalize”. He further said, “if only this broadcasting had started 10 years ago, we could have been much more normalized already”.