It seems that some groups have planned to finish off the Hizmet movement, which was inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, and start a conflict between the movement and the ruling AK Party.
They are trying to portray the movement as the mastermind behind all the controversial issues in the country and incite the government against the movement in order to achieve their goals. The government wants to shut down prep schools belonging to members of Hizmet, but those members are exercising their right to raise objections to the plan. And all of a sudden, those members have been accused of “establishing a parallel state,” “being worse than the Kurdish Communities Union [KCK]” and “trying to create an AK Party without Prime Minister Erdoğan.” A major corruption and bribery investigation is being carried out. Four ministers who were allegedly involved in corruption and bribery have resigned from office. And claims emerge that Gülen’s parallel state is behind this investigation. But don’t those who take bribes have any sins?
Kalashnikov-carrying police raid Gülen-inspired private and prep schools based on ‘reasonable suspicion’
Police carrying Kalashnikov rifles and inspectors from a number of government bodies raided 14 private and prep schools in Mardin province on Tuesday based on “reasonable suspicion” that the schools are involved in tax fraud, a move that comes as part of the government-orchestrated operation targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement.
GYV: Hard-won democratic gains sacrificed for short-term interests
The move to seek the extradition of Fethullah Gülen using irrational justifications, the pressures on those businesspeople who sympathize with the Hizmet movement and the boycotts and sufferings that came in the wake of Erdoğan’s threat, “Do not given them [the Hizmet movement] even a single drop of water,” are the sort of developments unseen even during coup eras.
Why couldn’t Bozdağ talk about the parallel structure?
Several parliamentarians attended the meeting with the Turkish minister in order to learn more about Erdoğan’s panacea “parallel state” theory and they insistently questioned Bozdağ about the Hizmet movement. Although he has etched his name in history as the minister who undermined the HSYK and halted the graft investigations at the speed of light, Bozdağ could only say a few sentences about the “treason, Hashashin-like activities, espionage, collaboration with external forces” of this parallel structure. Yet Europeans were eager to hear some explanation from an official.
Does the Gülen movement securitize the Kurdish question?
Turkey’s highly polarized political climate is flooded with conspiracy theories on any given topic. Hence, facts are often lost amid speculations. Recently, a frequent target not only in Turkey but also the West has been the Gülen (Hizmet) movement. Ali Halit Aslan, Friday March 2, 2012 One of the most repeated speculations nowadays is that […]
EU Criticizes Kosovo, Turkey Over Deportation Of Six Erdogan Political Foes
The European Union on April 3 criticized Kosovo’s deportation of six Turks who were political foes of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying it “raised questions” about both Pristina’s and Ankara’s “respect” for human rights.
Fethullah Gulen: No Return from Democracy!
Fethullah Gulen speaks at the commencement reception of Journalists and Writers Foundation in 1994: As with the entire world, people in Turkey are also heading towards democracy. To date, majority of the people in Turkey have lived only with the ten percent of democracy; they were able to get only one tenth of it, and […]
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