Unlike the perception that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tried to create, with the help of tremendous media power, the contention in the run-up to the elections was never between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Hizmet movement (or the so-called foreign forces that colluded with it).
On Thursday night Samanyolu Haber TV news channel was the latest to face a cyber attack, as readers have at times also recently been unable to access the websites of the dailies Zaman, Today’s Zaman and Taraf, as well as the Cihan news agency, particularly since the night of the local elections on March 30.
Nurullah Albayrak, Gülen’s lawyer, said the decision to cancel the scholar’s passport is politically motivated and has no legal basis. He said Gülen was granted a green passport after his application to the relevant authorities following the adoption of Article 4 of Law No. 5682, which allows certain state officials and retired or resigned public servants to apply for a green passport after a review of their status during their work.
Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who has inspired the popular civic and social movement called Hizmet, said the ballot box is not everything, urging his followers to not stick to only one but to cast their votes freely based on their personal conviction. He added that focusing on the ballot box only makes some people comfortable in telling lies.
Gülen said he had heard of Turkish officials’ efforts to “undermine Turkish schools abroad” which are run by his movement in many countries across the world. “Unfortunately, this appetite for destruction pushes all fair limits. These schools were established through the great self-sacrifice of the people of Anatolia,” he said.
Fethullah Gülen’s stance on corruption and anti-democratic practices has never changed. Osman Şimşek, the editor of herkul.org, which broadcasts and publishes Gülen’s speeches, recently published a letter that Gülen sent to Erdoğan in May 2006. In the letter, Gülen warns the prime minister that his government had begun to deviate from its democratic line.
Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who has inspired the popular civic and social movement called Hizmet, has said he is concerned with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government’s moves seen over the last couple of years to cut back on fundamental rights and freedoms in Turkey.