Date posted: October 11, 2013

The lawyer of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has denied alleged remarks made by his client against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) that were published by a leftist daily on Oct. 9.

The leftist Birgün daily published the transcript of an alleged audio recording, which the newspaper claims belongs to Gülen and which was first released by a hacker group, Roj Hack, on the Internet.

Gülen’s lawyer, Orhan Erdemli, refuted the allegations, saying the Islamic scholar did not issue any statement about ruling AK Party and pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies, let alone one intended to “create political disorder,” as the daily report claimed.

According to Birgün’s report, Gülen told his followers that the AK Party is ruled by the cemaat — a term is used to refer to the Gülen movement in Turkey — and ordered his disciples to disseminate disinformation and negative speculations about the BDP deputies to discredit them in the eyes of the public.

“All of the claims about Gülen are groundless and fabricated. Unlike what was claimed in the daily report, my client hasn’t held any press conference or issued any such remarks. It is impossible to accept these kinds of reports, which clearly have no relation to responsible and objective journalism, within the scope of press freedom,” Erdemli said in a statement, accusing Birgün of carrying out a smear campaign against Gülen.

Source: Today's Zaman , October 11, 2013

Tags: Defamation of Hizmet |