Wife of Calgary imam held in Turkey on coup allegations, says he still has no lawyer

Davud Hanci, in white shirt at right, hosts MP Michelle Rempel at his family home in Calgary.
Davud Hanci, in white shirt at right, hosts MP Michelle Rempel at his family home in Calgary.


Date posted: September 7, 2016

CBC News

PM Trudeau spoke to Turkish officials about Hanci; family getting updates from Canadian government.

The wife of a Calgary imam being held in prison near Istanbul, Turkey says she was pleased to hear that Prime Minister Trudeau recently spoke to Turkish officials about the matter.

He was arrested in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt earlier this summer, which prompted officials to round up and detain some 35,000 people.

More than 17,000 of them have been formally arrested to face trial, including soldiers, police, judges and journalists.

Rumeysa Hanci says her husband Davud had nothing to do with the attempt to overthrow the government. She says the family is still trying to get a lawyer for him.

“I am so upset. Like, my husband was detained, you know, wrongfully and, like, he doesn’t deserve to be there,” she said.

There is no word on how Turkish officials reacted to Trudeau bringing up the matter at a side meeting in Hangzhou, China, where he was taking part in the G20 summit.

Hanci says the family has had limited contact with her husband, but she did get a letter from him on the weekend.

“He says he’s OK and he’s worrying about us because he didn’t hear from us, too,” she said.

‘I want him to come home very soon’

It has been reported that he is suspected by Turkish officials of having ties to the Hizmet movement, also known as the Gulen movement, which is described as a global network based on the teachings of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a critic and former ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey alleges that Gulen orchestrated the failed July 15 military coup. Gulen has repeatedly denied the claims.

Hanci, who works as an imam for Correctional Service Canada and the Alberta correctional services, went to Turkey with his family on July 7 to visit his ailing father.

Rumeysa Hanci and the couple’s two young sons were allowed to leave Turkey early last month. The three of them are currently staying with family in Ontario.

Rumeysa says she’s hopeful Trudeau’s meeting with Turkish officials will help her husband’s case.

The family says it has been receiving updates from the Canadian government since he was detained.

They’re also appealing for help from human rights organizations.

“I want him to come home very soon,” Hanci said.

Source: CBC News , September 6, 2016


Related News

Mosque-cemevi project halted due to government’s ‘parallel paranoia’

Turkey’s first-ever complex housing both a mosque and a cemevi, an Alevi house of worship, has become the latest victim in the battle launched by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government against the Gülen movement after the Mamak Municipality refused to grant a certificate of occupancy to the complex on the grounds that it was built with “parallel funds.”

Votes of religious orders and communities [in Turkey]

The three-week debate between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Fethullah Gülen had a long past that falls under this category. Although the AK Party is powerful, the Gülen movement is not a piece of cake it can swallow easily. The AK Party is a political party that keeps its members together using the power and interests available to a ruling party. The Gülen movement, on the other hand, is an army of volunteers.

‘Humiliating people not allowed in Islam’

A man identified as Mustafa Petek asked the Religious Affairs Directorate on March 24 if Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the Hizmet movement, deserves to be a target of hate speech by state officials. The Religious Affairs Directorate, in response to the man’s query on hate speech, said, “In Islam, no one is allowed to humiliate a person or refer to him using adjectives that don’t represent him.”

Terrorist organization, you say

He is 73 years old and is known as a respected scholar who has been studying Islamic exegesis. He is well-known in academia. He was promoted to associate professor in the field of Islamic exegesis back in 1977. He served as head of the exegesis department at the faculty of theology at Erzurum’s Atatürk University, conducted research in Paris Sorbonne, taught at the faculty of Islamic studies at the Islamic University of Madinah, was the chair of exegesis studies at Marmara University and conducted academic studies at International Islamic University of Malaysia. He is the author of 13 books and hundreds of articles.

Turkey’s targeted teachers find refuge in Vietnam

Vietnam feels like an odd refuge for those who put their faith in one of Turkey’s most controversial political figures—a man who preaches peace, but has been accused of fomenting war. For Yildirim and others like him, however, it may prove the safest place in the world.

Turkish Cultural Center in West Haven hit with graffiti in wake of unrest

Usually, if you hear about a particular ethnic group that’s a victim of graffiti, it’s from some other ethnic group or someone who doesn’t understand their culture. But a building facing the Turkish Cultural Center Connecticut recently was tagged — for the second time in three years — with graffiti that appears to be an extension of a political battle raging within Turkey itself.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Does Islam Promote Violence?

Review of Dogan Koc’s Strategic Defamation of Fethullah Gulen: English vs. Turkish

Developing Ghana; the role of Tudec and Galaxy İnt’l School

78 detained for raising money for post-coup purge victims

Erdoğan, Gülen among 10 Turkish figures in Foreign Policy 500 List

UK court rejects ‘politically motivated’ Turkish extradition request of businessman

Fethullah Gülen: Turkey is being dragged into a civil war

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News