Father of three released only after wife died following heart attack

Engin Öztürk, a father of three who spent 15 months behind bars over his alleged ties to the Gulen movement, has been released only after his wife, Vina Öztürk passed away following a heart attack.

Kimse Yok Mu reaches out to Syrians in joint project with UNHCR

Speaking to Sunday’s Zaman, Kimse Yok Mu Secretary-General Savaş Metin said they have been able to reach out to 17,000 people from 2,900 families with this project, which will conclude by the end of February.

Corruption investigation: Questions that will hound PM Erdoğan

Everyone is wondering now what is behind the corruption investigation, and the first “suspect” to come to many minds is the Islamist Gülen movement. Tensions between this group and the AKP have been rising over the years, and boiled over recently due to the prep-school issue – a matter that has received wide media coverage.

The Gülen movement denies this but the vitriol flying between daily Zaman, which is close to Gülen, and Yeni Şafak, which is staunchly pro-AKP, is enough to give one a sense of the bitter struggle involved.

Is Anybody Out There?

In Turkey today, relief organization Kimse Yokmu, affiliated with the Fethullah Gulen inspired Hizmet movement has become the target of repeated attacks by Turkey’s political neo-tyrants, the most prominent of whom is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Canadian Globe Editorial- It just gets worse in Turkey

We can reasonably hope that there won’t be any large-scale bloody purges, Stalin-style. But Turkey is likely to grow further away from Europe. The convenient travel visas to the rest of Europe, which many Turks have hoped for, may be a long time away.

Is the Hizmet movement resisting normalization?

Accusing the Hizmet movement, which insistently demands the fulfillment of the steps towards democratization which I referred to above and contributes to the process of change as evidenced by its stance in the referendum, of serving as a parallel structure indirectly means: “I will not change myself and introduce universal reforms. You have to live with this painful fact for the normalization of the country and take your steps accordingly.”