Turkey introduces new decree law to seize all Gulen-related companies
Date posted: August 25, 2016
Thanks to a new decree law released as part of the state of emergency declared late on July 20 following a failed coup, Turkey’s government is now set to seize all the Turkish companies owned by businessmen somehow linked to the US-based Islamic Scholar Fethullah Gülen.
AK Party government has already been appointing trustees to private entities in Turkey, as part of its battle against Gulen Movement since a corruption scandal led to the resignation of four Cabinet ministers in December 2013. A total of 2,000 trustees were appointed to hundreds of private entities in Turkey since the beginning of 2016.
According to Haber Türk daily, takeover of Turkish companies linked to Gulen movement through appointment of trustees became a thing of the past, as Turkish government now “legally” authorized by a new decree law to nationalize/privatize any entities affiliated with the movement.
The Gülen movement is a grassroots social initiative inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Erdoğan refers to the movement as “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization.”
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Expert’s opinion: Turkey’s Demanding Extradition Of Fethullah Gülen Is Frivolous Grandstanding
Although ordinarily I respect his cool-headedness and self-control, in hindsight I wish President Obama had been equally blunt in responding to President Erdoğan’s demands that the US extradite Fethullah Gülen. All of his demands, beginning in 2014 and vigorously renewed in the wake of the July 15 attempted coup, have been completely illegitimate and unfair.
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