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.

Erdogan’s bid to close Gulen schools in Africa opposed

Several African states have rejected Turkey’s request to close schools run by the Hizmet movement. Turkish President Erdogan accused Fethullah Gulen, who owns Hizmet, of involvement in the failed July 15 coup. When Turkish President Erdogan visited Uganda and Kenya in May, he sought to stamp out the influence of the Islamic cleric Gulen. He accused the preacher of using his connections to try to overthrow him, allegations which Gulen denied.

Police detain student over fingerprints on Gülen books

According to a report, the police were informed that books written by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen were thrown in the garbage by unidentified people in the Belediyeevleri neighborhood of the Canik district of Samsun province. After the investigation, fingerprints on the books were matched to those of A.E.A, a 22-year-old university student.

Turkish PM: State of emergency will continue until Gülen movement completely wiped out

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said in Ankara on Thursday that the state of emergency which was declared following a failed coup attempt in July of last year will continue until the faith-based Gülen movement, which the government accuses of being behind the coup attempt, is completely wiped out from state institutions.

Turkey could find itself facing hefty legal bill for mass purges

In 2006, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Turkish citizen Osman Murat Ulke, who refused to perform compulsory military service as an act of civil disobedience, had been subjected to “civil death” due to the numerous prosecutions he faced after his original jail sentence. Ulke’s expulsion from his profession and the prospect of an interminable series of convictions, which forced him into hiding, constituted a “disproportionate” punishment, the court said.

Police raid Gülen-inspired prep schools in Erzurum

In another government-orchestrated operation targeting the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet movement, police officers and inspectors from a number of ministries and government bodies carried out raids early on Thursday on FEM prep schools established by Hizmet volunteers in Erzurum.