Human Rights Watch Director: This is a political purge… pure and simple!


Date posted: January 31, 2017

HizmetNews.Com

Reuters reports that Turkish authorities have dismissed more than 90,000 public servants for alleged connections to a coup attempt in July 2016. Labour Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said 125,485 people from the public service had been put through legal proceedings after the coup attempt, and that 94,867 of those had been dismissed so far.

Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch Director, has denounced the purge saying “No one pretends there were 90,000 coup plotters. This is a political purge, pure and simple. Erdogan’s Turkey”

 

As Reuters reports [Erdogan’s] Turkey has been rooting out followers of the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Erdogan accuses the Gulen’s Hizmet movement of having infiltrated state institutions and plotted to overthrow the government. Gulen has unequivocally denied the allegations and condemned the coup immediately before it was repelled.

 

 

 

 

Tags: | | | |


Related News

Fortunately, we have not closed Gülen schools

Mehmet Ali Birand June 9, 2012 When I was invited to become one of the judges in the International Turkish Olympiad, I was initially surprised. I was also a bit embarrassed because I never considered myself to be an expert in Turkish songs and folk songs, but I could not turn the offer down because […]

Turkish Islamic scholar Gülen loses 72-year-old brother

Seyfullah Gülen, the brother of leading Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, died at the age of 72 on Friday morning at the private Şifa Hospital in Erzurum, where he had been receiving treatment after a heart attack.

Turkey’s counter-terrorism campaign [against Hizmet] discredited

The agenda of the Turkish authorities [against Hizmet] goes far beyond the attempted coup, it is about the need to neutralise a movement that became a political threat when its followers within the judiciary and police started exposing corruption within the government’s ruling inner circle in December 2013.

Growing Corruption Inquiry Hits Close to Turkish Leader

In building his political career, Turkey’s powerful and charismatic prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, relied heavily on the support of a Sufi mystic preacher [Fethullah Gulen] whose base of operations is now in Pennsylvania. Mr. Gulen’s followers “never approved the role the government tried to attain in the Middle East, or approved of its policy in Syria, which made everything worse, or its attitude in the Mavi Marmara crisis with Israel,” said Ali Bulac, a conservative intellectual and writer who supports Mr. Gulen.

Nigerian students lament harassment, detention by Turkish authorities

No fewer than 50 Nigerians attending private schools in Turkey, including Fatih University, were recently deported by that country after the coup attempt. Nigeria had ignored calls by the Turkish government to close down 17 Turkish schools in the country. The Turkish government alleged that the schools were linked to Fethullah Gülen.

Prominent figures gather together at GYV iftar dinner in Istanbul

Distinguished spiritual leaders in Turkey, politicians, artists, diplomats, businesspeople and journalists came together for an iftar at İstanbul’s Four Seasons Hotel on Thursday night for an event held by the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV).

Latest News

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

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Zaman launches satirical magazine, defying pressure with humor

The philosophical and intellectual contest “Know Thyself” held in Bishkek

İstanbul municipality tears down part of school in midnight operation

Forget about the gentleman living in Pennsylvania, US tells Ankara

A medical center is being built next to Dadaap Camp

Associations, NGOs, banks launch aid campaigns for Soma victims

Turkish police detain al-Qaeda suspects

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News