
Ashok Sajjanhar, the Secretary of the Indian Interior Ministry’s National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH), in a statement he made during a workshop organized by the Journalists and Writers Foundation’s (GYV) Intercultural Dialogue Platform (KADİP), indicated that involvement in dialogue work encourages one to learn one’s faith more profoundly.

Lawyers for Samanyolu Broadcasting Group General Manager Hidayet Karaca, who was arrested after government-initiated operations targeting the managers of the Zaman and Samanyolu media outlets on Dec. 14, are preparing to file an appeal with the Constitutional Court to overturn the decision to detain Karaca on Tuesday.

Ever since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan launched a battle against the faith-based Hizmet movement after a corruption probe went public on Dec. 17, 2013, almost no day has passed without pro-government media outlets’ bringing forward allegations about the “parallel structure or state” and associating any negative development in the country with this so-called structure.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s witch-hunt campaign to find and eliminate people who are sympathizer of the Hizmet movement and not sympathizer of the government was reflected in interviews that were organized by the Ministry of Education last month. It seems Turkey has totally become a party-state.

Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD) Chairman Haluk Dinçer has said that he does not see any “parallel structure” within the state as is asserted by pro-government circles, adding that discharging some police officers on accusations of illegal wiretapping does not prove the existence of such a structure.

Ekrem Dumanlı was arrested on December 14, part of a series of coordinated raids by Turkish authorities against a number of prominent media figures, all facing charges of belonging to a terrorist “parallel organization.” The organization in question? Fethullah Gülen’s outlawed Hizmet movement.

Hundreds of people gathered in front of Silivri Prison on Saturday to protest the detention of Samanyolu Broadcasting Group General Manager Hidayet Karaca, who is being held in custody in the prison as part of a government-orchestrated police operation targeting journalists, scriptwriters and police officers.

GYV’s members strongly protested the police measure. Underlining that the raid violated standard protocol, high-ranking GYV official Recep Usta expressed; “the protocol states that VGM technical teams can come to the building and conduct examinations; and should they find any violation, a period of a month is granted to us [to fix any issues].

American Professor Philip Clayton has said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s burning of bridges with the European Union after he received criticism from the bloc for detaining leading members of the media is a sign that Turkey is in crisis with the international community.

The alleged government-plot against members of the faith-based Hizmet movement, disclosed in June by former Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin, was further instigated with questionable testimonies obtained from secret witnesses, informants and anonymous complainants leading to criminal prosecutions apparently orchestrated by political authorities.