
Having purged more than 150,000 people from state jobs and jailed over 50,000 due to alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday called on people to inform on activities of Gülen followers, saying that if they fail to do so, they will be held responsible.

Pro-government Sabah daily newspaper claimed on Saturday that 45 Turkish nationals were deported from Qatar for having links to the Gulen movement. The daily said two of those 45 people — academic Zekeriya Özşevik and his wife Derya Özşevik — were detained upon their arrival to Istanbul, giving no detail about the whereabouts of the others.

In collaboration with Sarva Dharma Samvaad (SDS) and Interfaith Foundation, Indialogue Foundation organised the Annual Interfaith Iftar Dinner. The success of this event left us with enormous motivation to continue this tradition of bringing people together.

A Samsun teacher, identified as Osman K., was detained after a repairman found in his computer a CD that features speeches by Fethullah Gulen. The audio CD, titled Kalbin Miraci, featured faith-based sermons Gulen delivered at mosques in Turkey in the past.

The pro-government Sabah daily’s Europe edition, Sabah Avrupa, has set up a telephone line for its readers to report followers of the faith-based Gülen movement, against which Turkish authorities launched a witch hunt over its alleged involvement in a failed coup last summer.

Alparslan Kuytul, president of the Furkan Foundation and leader of a religious group critical of the Turkish government, said he was advised to put the blame on the faith-based Gülen movement for a police intervention in a meeting of his followers in April and that the government would ultimately clear the way for his group to operate freely.

Tuba Kaya, a 27-year-old reporter from the now-closed Zaman daily, was arrested on Sept. 19 after her ex-husband lodged a complaint claiming that she was a member of Turkey’s Gülen group, which the Turkish government accuses of masterminding a coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

Özlem Konakçı, the wife of former bomb disposal expert Bilal Konakçı, was detained over her alleged links to the Gülen movement. Bilal was retired from his position at İzmir Police Department after he lost his right hand and both eyes while trying to dispose of a bomb in 2009.