
“They were a family of thinkers,” said a dairy farmer in the village who asked not to be named as he feared repercussions from the authorities. “They were good people. They came from nowhere, they had no water, nothing,” he says, pointing out the Gulen family’s former home, made from clay and rocks.

Turkish engagement with Southern Africa will not be without challenges. The success of this engagement will depend on the Turkish attitude towards the Hizmet Movement. If Turkey decides to tackle the Hizmet Movement head on as it has done in Turkey and in other countries, it will risk alienation in South Africa and the wider region. The Hizmet Movement is generally popular in Southern Africa, with long standing ties to civil society and the political elite.

Mrs. Osuji said Hizmet Movement schools, otherwise known as Turkish schools, are contributing to the development of education in Nigeria and other African countries. She urged African governments to resist any plot by the Turkish government to undermine their sovereignties and respectability by accepting its disguised order to hand over the Turkish schools to Maarif Foundation.

Another dirty AKP plan was revealed by AKP deputy Huseyin Kocabiyik. Kocabiyik in his Nov 13th tweet revealed the plan. “Assassinations will be staged against statesmen and furious people will hang all imprisoned PKK members and Hizmet supporters,” he said. “This is what is spoken among the public,” he tweeted.

An intelligence consulting firm founded by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s top military adviser, was recently hired as a lobbyist by an obscure Dutch company with ties to Turkey’s government and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Prisoners jailed in the post-coup crackdown in Istanbul and Ankara these days have far serious problem than torture and ill-treatment: media reports about a mass prison break that could provoke a government intervention, claims about mass executions of the prisoners trying to escape in that attempt.

Turkey’s alliances with the US and EU are fraying badly. Above all, Mr Erdogan is moulding the country in his own image, with only a uniform message allowed. As one liberal intellectual puts it: “In the past you got arrested for what you said, but now you can be arrested for what you don’t say.”

Turkish authorities have finally come up with a detailed set of measures and criteria to identify suspected Gulenists. After its publication and prime minister’s announcement, critics argued that this presents a perfect textbook of fascism as the government justifies its actions, purges on ludicrous charges devoid of a legal base in universal standards and even country’s current laws.

At least 21 people have reportedly committed suicide either after they were imprisoned over ties to the movement or after being linked to the movement outside prison. The relatives of most of them claim that the detainees are not the kind of people to commit suicide, shedding doubt on the official narrative. Rumours also have it that some of the detainees were killed after being subjected to torture under custody.

The progress report on Turkey that was issued on Wednesday by the European Commission expressed concern over the Turkish government’s purge against Gülen movement members, saying “any allegation of wrongdoing needs to be examined with due process, transparent procedures, and the right of every individual to a fair trial or equitable administrative process should be safeguarded.”

Gulen movement, which is inspired by the highly-respected United States based cleric, Fethullah Gulen, has been brazenly targeted for total destruction by President Erdogan after the failed coup in that country few months ago. The iron-hand President accused members and sympathisers of the movement as being behind the coup.

“Germany is an outward-looking country and is open to all those who are politically persecuted as a matter of principle,” Roth said. “They can apply for asylum in Germany. That applies not just to journalists.” Roth also spoke out against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown against opposition lawmakers and critical journalists and academics.

The mass sacking of more than 1,200 academics in Turkey has been compared to tactics used in Nazi Germany. Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s foreign minister, made his comments shortly after Turkish authorities released a list of 1,273 academics fired from public universities on 29 October.

I’ve been writing about Turkey for more than a decade now. It’s a beautiful country, rich in history, and a complex society but, boy, in recent years their trolling has left a lot to be desired. It’s not just the internet trolls who have fallen far behind but also Turkish diplomats and even senior aides to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.