Academics sign statement saying ‘rule of law suspended’
Date posted: February 6, 2014
ANKARA
Academics signed a statement declaring that rule of law in Turkey has been suspended since a corruption scandal implicating various businessmen and government officials erupted on Dec. 17.
Professor Ayhan Aktar, Professor Ersin Kalaycıoğlu and Professor Yasemin İnceoğlu, as well as 147 other academics, signed a statement saying that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government cannot ignore corruption allegations by making up claims of a “parallel state” — which has no meaning in political science or law — and placing all responsibility of unlawful acts on the Hizmet movement, which was inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
A signatory, Professor Gencay Gürsoy, read the statement on behalf of the academics on Thursday.
The statement stressed that the reassignments of thousands of public servants and the worrisome attempts to curb the separation of powers through the judiciary have damaged Turkey’s respect for the principles of law and security and that they have broken the ties between law and legitimacy.
Terrorism: Why Obama, Others Ignored Turkish President Erdogan
Turkish President Erdogan on Tuesday called on world leaders to fight against US based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen over what he (Erdogan) described as an act of terrorism orchestrated by Gulen against Turkey. Addressing Presidents and Prime Ministers of civilised regimes of the world at the 68th UN General Assembly, Erdogan demonstrated before his colleagues very high level of incapacitation and inability to stick to simple ratified conventions to which Turkey is signatory.
Washington Post on Erdoğan’s purge: Cruel frenzy in march towards authoritarianism
Mr. Erdogan, the Turkish president who was the target of a failed coup last July, has since carried out a wave of arbitrary punishments and imprisonments of thousands of journalists, academics, bureaucrats, lawyers and human rights defenders he suspects of affiliation with Mr. Gulen and his movement. This cruel frenzy is just the latest step in Mr. Erdogan’s march toward authoritarianism.
Former intel chief calls for use of ASALA, MOSSAD tactics to kill Gülen followers
İsmail Hakkı Pekin, a former intelligence chief of the Turkish General Staff, has suggested that Turkey make use of tactics it used against Armenian militant group, the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), and those employed by Israeli intelligence agency MOSSAD against Nazis in order to assassinate followers of the Gülen movement abroad.
Turkey has not achieved enough democratization for Fethullah Gülen’s return
Kenan Taş Mustafa Yesil: “The possible tension between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Gülen movement is what the pro-guardianship figures desire most. Moreover, it should be recalled how satisfied they were during the constitutional and presidential election crises in 2007 and the AK Party closure case in 2008. Turkey is passing […]
The fall of democracy and predicament of political Islam in Turkey
Hizmet is one of the world’s leading civil society movements. The threatening remarks and the derogatory discourse of Erdoğan against Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement is totally at odds with democratic norms and principles.
A Comparative Approach to Islam and Democracy
Religion, particularly Islam, has become one of the most difficult subject areas to tackle in recent years. Contemporary culture, whether approached from the perspective of anthropology or theology, psychology or psychoanalysis, evaluates religion with empirical methods. On the one hand, religion is an inwardly experienced and felt phenomenon, one mostly related to life’s permanent aspects.
Latest News
Sacramento leaders gather for Iftar dinner in celebration of Ramadan
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
In Case You Missed It
German government says Gülen movement not involved in any illegal acts
Turkish PM’s wife praises devotion of Prague school’s teachers
‘Humiliating people not allowed in Islam’
Fethullah Gulen’s Message regarding Rumors Circulated in Turkish Media about a Second Coup Attempt
AK Party, Hizmet movement and politics
A medical center is being built next to Dadaap Camp
Flynn stopped military plan against ISIS that Turkey opposed – after being paid as its agent
