Most customers do not recognize the fit, well-dressed man walking around Tuts Bakery and Cafe, picking up used cups and dirty dishes. Why would they? And what would he be doing here? Hakan Sukur, 46, is one of Turkey’s most famous athletes, its most celebrated soccer player, a World Cup hero and a veteran of several of Europe’s top leagues. So how did Sukur end up here?
The secret intelligence cabal directly controlled by the head of Turkey’s notorious National Intelligence Organization (MİT) under direct orders from the Turkish president has planned to assassinate a leading critic in Germany and execute a plan to kidnap another critic in the Netherlands, sources familiar with the cases told.
The European Union has denied claims by the Turkish press that it has, for the first time, called the Gülen movement a ‘terrorist’ organization in its upcoming progress report slated to be published on Tuesday. A source who spoke to Ahvalnews on the condition of anonymity categorically denied claims made by Turkish media sources.
German Ambassador to Turkey Martin Erdmann has said his country’s judiciary does not recognize the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization and that Turkey should present credible evidence of criminal activity to Germany for the extradition of Gülen-linked individuals.
We have certainly been scapegoated, and enduring an ongoing collective trauma, with no end in sight. The fact that the Turkish state could label innocent people guilty, and punish them for their association (even tangential) with the Gülen Movement, opened the majority of our eyes. If they could do this to us, it must be true that they did it to other minority groups (Kurds, Alevis) and certainly to the Armenians.
İsmail Hakkı Pekin, a former intelligence chief of the Turkish General Staff, has suggested that Turkey make use of tactics it used against Armenian militant group, the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), and those employed by Israeli intelligence agency MOSSAD against Nazis in order to assassinate followers of the Gülen movement abroad.
Clearly, the Gülen movement is reeling from the campaign against it in Turkey. However, it has been a genuinely international movement for many years. As it struggles in Turkey, it may well flourish elsewhere among those who react against Erdoğan’s vitriolic campaign against Gülen.
The first time I went to Oklahoma City, I was wondering, how am I going to do this? I’m a Muslim player, I pray 5 times a day, fast, eat halal food. So when I got to OKC, I told the chefs, the organization, I’m a Muslim, I need to do this, this, this. They were so respectful.
Erdogan and Gulen shared the goal of creating a “devout generation”. Yet despite their similar outlook on life and objectives, the Gulen movement never merged completely with the AKP. However, Gulen was never willing to subordinate himself to Erdogan, which is why the two men fell out in 2013 and the informal coalition with the Gulen movement collapsed.
The Hizmet Movement, founded by exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, hosted a panel discussion by its South African branch last weekend. The purpose of the event was to clarify misconceptions about the movement and its involvement in the current political situation in Turkey.