Turkish court orders 81-year-old man to stay behind bars on coup charges
Date posted: November 3, 2017
A Turkish court has ruled for a continuation of the arrest of an 81-year-old Turkish man with walking and speaking difficulties, several Turkish media outlets reported.
The man, named Mustafa Türk, was initialy detained by Turkish police on Sept. 1, 2016, over suspected links to the Gülen group, which the Turkish government accuses of masterminding a July 15 coup attempt.
He was handcuffed and taken by police from his house in Turgutlu, Manisa province, handcuffed and driven to a police station for interrogation. His relatives described it as “degrading and barbaric” treatment. Several days later, he was officially arrested and sent to a prison in Manisa.
Last weekend, the Manisa High Criminal Court reportedly decided for the continuation of his pretrial detention.
Starting a witch hunt [against the Hizmet movement]
The discourse Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Chairman and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan relies on to intimidate his opponents has taken on a whole different dimension. The prime minister argues that his election victory in the March 30 local elections gives him the right to combat the Hizmet movement, which he refers to as the “parallel state” or “parallel structure.”
Corruption probe [in Turkey]
Radikal’s Cüneyt Özdemir said that even if some people interpret the corruption operation as a manifestation of the rift between the Hizmet movement and the government, it does not reduce the importance and seriousness of the allegations directed against the detainees. “The fact that it involves the general manager of a state-run bank and the sons of three ministers shows us the importance of this investigation,” he said.
Turks caught up in Gulenists crackdown seek justice
When she returned to her old school to pick up some papers after being suspended, the religious affairs teacher from the Turkish town of Adapazari was braced for some awkward glances. But she was not prepared to be treated as an outcast by colleagues of eight years’ standing. “They wouldn’t even look at me,” says the mother-of-three, dabbing her cheek with a tissue. “It was as if I was a terrorist.”
Halki, pope, patriarch and Gülen
The way Turkey’s chief political Islamist and new president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has approached the reopening of the Halki seminary, a school that had trained Eastern Orthodox clergy for the Patriarchate for more than a century until it was forcibly shut down in 1971, represents a fundamental flaw in the thinking of so-called Islamists, who place more emphasis on symbolism than substance and like very much to employ divisive and hateful discourse as opposed to reaching out and embracing different faiths and cultures.
Retired on disability, former bomb disposal expert kept in jail for a month over Gülen links
Bilal Konakçı, a former bomb disposal expert for the İzmir Police Department who was retired after he lost his right hand and both eyes while trying to dispose of a bomb in 2009, was detained on Dec. 20 over links to the faith-based Gülen movement, and his wife is worried about his health as authorities refuse to allow the family to contact him.
Jews should speak up for Hizmet
When we think of Hizmet, Jews conscious of our own history either can say, “There but for the grace of God go we,” or we can think of Rabbi Hillel: “If we are only for ourselves, what are we? And if now, when?”
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