A Chat with Vonya Womack, a Human Rights Activist and Expert on Turkey and Its [Gulen Follower] Refugees
Date posted: December 20, 2019
RICH FISHER
Following a recent coup attempt, more than 100,000 people were arrested and dismissed from their jobs in the Republic of Turkey. Turkey is also the world’s largest jailer of journalists; 300+ are now behind bars. Our guest is an expert on these and related matters: Vonya Womack teaches at Cabrini University in Pennsylvania and spoke recently at the Raindrop Turkish House in Broken Arrow, OK.
She spoke about her work as a human rights activist and about how she recently visited with Turkish political refugees in Greece. She tells us about these adventures on StudioTulsa.
The government has developed a two-stage strategy in order to manage this scandal. The first stage was to blame foreign powers. The second stage was to declare the Gülen community as the representative of these foreign powers in the country and thereby put the blame on the Gülen community.
Erdoğan: Our people will punish Gülenists in the streets if they ever get out of jail
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a public speech on Wednesday that if people affiliated with Turkey’s Gülen group are released from prison after completing their prison terms, the Turkish public will “punish them in the streets.”
Germany investigates possible anti-Gulen spies
German police have raided apartments of four men suspected of carrying out espionage on behalf of the Turkish government. The men, said to be clerics, are accused of spying on supporters of cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Erdoğan’s imaginary power struggles
When we look at international media coverage of the recent corruption scandal in Turkey, we see that the events are generally seen as a “power struggle” between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and the Hizmet movement.
France Urges Turkey to Respect Rights in Aftermath of Coup
France’s foreign minister urged Turkey on Monday to respect fundamental rights and freedoms in the aftermath of the country’s failed military coup, saying democracy is the best defense against those trying to defy it.
Likely case against Hizmet will bolster authoritarian character of Erdoğan gov’t
Rumors have it that the Erdoğan government will file criminal charges against people alleged to be associated with this “parallel structure,” a veiled reference by Erdoğan to the Hizmet movement, inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, that the government claims as the force driving the massive corruption investigations that have shaken the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
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