Dozen people hold demonstration in front of Zaman to protest corruption coverage


Date posted: December 22, 2013

İSTANBUL

About a dozen people gathered on Sunday in front of Zaman, Turkey’s largest-circulated newspaper, to protest what they claim is critical reporting of the largest corruption scandal in Turkish history, in which senior members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government have been implicated.

The protest followed a series of public remarks over the weekend by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who attacked Zaman without mentioning it by name, urging people at rallies not to pay any attention to what was being reported by certain media organizations.

Responding to Erdoğan’s call, protestors, some bearded, showed up at the Zaman building, chanting slogans like, “We are soldiers of Tayyip.” They also brought a money-counting machine, a reference to a police raid that found a similar machine at the home of the son of a government minister along with millions of cash and several safes.

The protestors held up a banner bearing the picture of Islamic Scholar Fethullah Gülen saying that he despises the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. “Pick up your traitorous comrades and your prep schools, and get out of here, go to Israel, the US,” the script at the bottom of the banner said.

Gülen, who has followers in the millions in Turkey and abroad, has been living in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999.

On Dec. 17, İstanbul and Ankara police staged dawn raids and detained over 50 people as part of a major investigation into claims of corruption and bribery. Two sons of Turkish ministers, Halkbank General Director Süleyman Aslan and an Iranian businessman, Reza Zerrab, are among 24 suspects arrested as part of the investigation.

The suspects are accused of rigging state tenders, accepting and facilitating the payment of bribes for major urbanization projects, obtaining construction permits for protected areas in exchange for money, helping foreigners obtain Turkish citizenship with falsified documentation, involvement in export fraud, forging documents and smuggling gold.

Source: Today's Zaman , December 22, 2013

Tags: | | |


Related News

The genesis of the hatred against Gulen and the Hizmet Movement

By Kenyan Nomad May 2, 2012 Every now and then, we are subjected to a purportedly investigative report by a ‘respected’ (pun intended) journalist about famed Turkish Scholar, Fethullah Gulen and the movement he inspired: The Hizmet (service) Movement. On reading the said article or report, we realize it is the same innuendos, fabrications and the macabre claims […]

Turkey, The great purge – Four lives upturned by Erdogan’s ‘cleansing.’ Episode 2 – Mehmet

Following the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, Erdogan promised to “cleanse” Turkey of a “virus” that has plagued its state institutions. That cleansing has been primarily directed at two organisations: the PKK and the Gulen movement. But the crackdown on both organisations began long before the July coup attempt.

Gulen says he is certain Erdogan behind failed Turkey coup

Asked if he was suggesting that Erdogan was behind the coup, Gulen said: “Until now I only thought that was a possibility. Now I think it’s certain.” Gulen said a Turkish officer had recently said that the chief of general staff and the intelligence chief met in the army headquarters during the night of the coup, adding: “They already knew everything that would happen later.”

Questions we dare not ask: Gülen and the coup

Gareth Jenkins once criticized Turkey’s infamous Ergenekon indictments on the grounds that they were “products of ‘projective’ rather than deductive reasoning, working backwards from the premise that the organization exists to weave unrelated individuals, statements and acts into a single massive conspiracy.” Other than being a far more extreme example of “projective” rather than “deductive” reasoning, how is the Turkish government and its media’s attempt at connecting Turkey’s failed coup with Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement he inspires any different?

Pakistan – Turkish teachers, students not to be deported, court told

The federal government Wednesday told the Lahore High Court that Turkish national teachers and students of PakTurk International Schools would not be deported.

Erdoğan media’s accusations against Gülen and Hizmet

Amost all of the same lies [against Gülen] are now repeated almost verbatim by the TV channels and newspapers under the control of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

The Erdoğan-Gülen encounter and democracy

Turkish teacher dies of cancer, buried in Australia

Action plan put into operation against Hizmet, indictment reveals

Statement on Erdogan Government’s shameful action against Fethullah Gulen

Turkey’s Erdogan vows to cut off revenues of Gulen-linked businesses

Alaton: I’m telling everyone about Turkish schools’ contribution to world peace

Ergenekon opinion lists subversive plans for coup d’état

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News