Turkey’s most influential and widely respected civil society organisation, the Hizmet movement, is under continual attack by PM Erdoğan who accuses it of seeking to establish a “parallel state”. Such rhetoric and ‘securitization’ may destroy the democratic fabric of Turkish society.
Gülen’s lawyer Nurullah Albayrak said on Monday that Erdoğan moved beyond borders of freedom of expression and used excessively harsh insults against the Islamic scholar. Gülen is demanding TL 100,000 in compensation for the allegedly denigrating remarks.
“We call on the president to observe his duty to prevent the constitutional order, the independence of the judiciary, and the rule of law from being put at risk,” Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) Chairman Mustafa Yeşil said in a press statement.
Yet, looking at the data in several recent surveys, including the AKP’s internal polling, the public does not seem to be buying the conspiracy theories any more, against the background of overwhelming evidence indicating massive wrongdoing in the government. The rushed decision by Erdoğan to reassign thousands of police officers and hundreds of prosecutors and judges as well as introducing controversial bills to reign in the judiciary have all reinforced the perception that Erdoğan and his people are deeply involved in corruption.
Claims have been made that these multi-billion-dollar deals have generated a huge hoard of funds for Erdoğan to buy off some media outlets through proxies, hire new sets of journalists to defend his government line and even convert critical analysts with fat checks to prod them to the other side of the aisle. And these claims also explain why some media groups are conducting black propaganda against the Hizmet movement.
The Akşehir Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (AKSİAD) has condemned an ongoing defamation campaign being conducted against the Hizmet movement inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, calling on government officials to refrain from the hate speech and polarizing rhetoric that are damaging the society.
Gülen’s lawyer, Nurullah Albayrak, will file a legal complaint in Ankara against the daily on Monday for violating the confidentiality of communication according to Article 132 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) and for insult according to Article 125 of the TCK.
ANFED held a general meeting in Ankara, which brought together 22 associations. After the meeting, Bıyık made some explanations to the reporters on the agenda of the country. Anatolian people are out of sorts due to excessive intervention of the government to the law system, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) and law-enforcement officers.
In Gulen’s view -as strongly emphasized by Rumi more than seven centuries ago- action is an inseparable aspect of tasawwuf, and Muslims should be actively involved in the community, share their experience with others, strive to help others and bring peace to the global village.
More civil society organizations from various parts of Turkey held press conferences on Friday to slam hate speech used by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government against the Hizmet movement, saying that top government officials should refrain from using hateful rhetoric.
Responding to speculations put forward by circles close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) that independent Kütahya deputy İdris Bal resigned from the party on an order from Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, Bal has said he did not resign from the party on anyone’s orders, stating that if they could prove this, he is also ready to resign from his post as deputy.
After “lies” and “defamatory statements” about Gülen surfaced in the media once new recordings were leaked on the Internet, lawyer Nurullah Albayrak said in a written statement that Gülen’s phone calls had been illegally wiretapped.
When its involvement in corruption and bribery became public, and that this seemed like the tip of an iceberg, the government thought that it must cover up the subsequent investigation, fearing that yet more investigations would be started — and so crushed the police force and the judiciary like a steamroller.