Pro-gov’t journo says Gülen followers were abducted, illegally questioned by Turkey’s intelligence agency


Date posted: July 30, 2017

Abdurrahman Şimşek, Sabah’s special editor for intelligence reporting, admitted on Friday that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) abducted several people who have links to the Gülen movement and illegally questioned them before handing them over to the police.

Speaking during a news program on A Haber on Friday evening, Şimşek said: “Some high-ranking Fethullahist imam, actually a person who is in a position [in the movement] equivalent to general secretary of police, was caught. Indeed, national intelligence caught him and illegally questioned and handed him over to the police.”

At least 11 cases of alleged abductions of people who have links to the Gülen movement, which is accused by Turkish authorities of being behind a failed coup last year, have occurred in various Turkish cities since July 15, 2016.

Previously, an accountant, an engineer, three teachers, a lawyer, a university employee, two intelligence agency officials, an Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTİK) employee and a Competition Authority employee were reported missing. One of the teachers was handed over by unidentified men to police after spending 42 days out of sight.

All have in common in their personal histories that they have lost their jobs amid a sweeping crackdown that the Turkish government has conducted against its critics, particularly members of the Gülen movement.

In a parliamentary question for Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım on April 25, Republican People’s Party (CHP) İstanbul deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu asked why an effective investigation is not being conducted to find these people and who abducted them.

Tanrıkulu also said there is widespread suspicion about the abduction of these people by MİT.

 

Source: Turkish Minute , July 29, 2017

Tags: | | |


Related News

PM’s son: Dad, let’s initiate an operation against Hizmet’s senior members

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son Bilal allegedly urged his father to trigger an operation to detain prominent figures of the Hizmet movement in response to an ongoing graft and bribery investigation implicating Erdoğan, his family members and a number of ministers and businessmen close to him.

Turkey overshadows war-hit Syria in number of academics seeking asylum elsewhere

The New York-based Scholar Rescue Fund, a part of the Institute of International Education (IIE) has received an unprecedented number of requests for help, its director Sarah Willcox told an audience at the European Association for International Education’s annual conference, held in Liverpool from 13 to 16 September, Times Higher Education (THE) reported.

Think Twice on Turkey: Erdogan’s Purges Are a Warning to Washington

“Whatever the merits of the government’s claims about the movement’s role in the coup, which Gülen himself denies, the speed and scale of the dismissals make it clear that many of those affected by the purge are caught up in it not because there is clear evidence of their involvement in the coup but merely because of their perceived association with the Gülen movement.”

Operation against the Hizmet movement soon!

The AK Party government sees the corruption probes as a coup launched against it by the Hizmet movement and it has convinced itself that the probes are a defensive move in response to the effort to close prep schools. Already Erdoğan has presented movement supporters as spies and succeeded in dividing the state bureaucracy, families, friends and neighbors in the country. Unfortunately, this polarization in society is quite dangerous.

76 newborns stateless as Turkey denies passports over parents’ Gülen links

Seventy-six babies have been born stateless in the last three months because Turkish diplomatic missions are denying consular services to people allegedly linked to the faith-based Gülen movement according to a report released by the Netherlands-based Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) on Monday.

Fate of preparatory courses

Zaman’s Hüseyin Gülerce denied allegations that there is tension between the government and Hizmet movement due to government’s steps to bring an end to these preparatory courses, saying that Hizmet does not own all preparatory course schools in the country. What bothers members of Hizmet is that the government has not given a clear or reasonable explanation as to why they are taking these steps, Gülerce said.

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

Jurist’s report highlighting illegality of Karaca’s arrest submitted to top court

“Hizmet Reaches out to others giving much ground for hope” tells Prof. Leo D. Lefebure

TUSKON says systematic campaign of defamation under way

Ankara-supplied clerics spy on Turkish-Australian communities

Afghan minister says proud his children studied at Turkish schools

Human Rights Watch: Emergency Decrees Facilitate Torture in Turkey

Filipino – Turkish Tolerance School students excel in ICAS 2014 exam, Ten others top in campus journalism

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News