The purge of the Hizmet Movement is what the Kurdish question was to Kemalism, a necessary tool with which to construct a new national identity, a tool to silence those who question it, and to design a social and political system that will foster it. Unfortunately, Turkey has no chance of going back, even to its fragile and dysfunctional democracy, without this narrative being completely rejected.
Those who believe they were wrongfully sacked can apply to a special commission to have their case reviewed and either be reinstated or compensated. The commission has “failed to uphold international standards and is acting as a de facto rubber stamp for the initial flawed decisions,” Andrew Gardner, Amnesty’s Turkey strategy and research manager, said.
After the alleged military coup that failed, the Islamic-rooted government forced hundreds of thousands of faith-based community members out of Turkey, causing a massive diaspora of Turkish citizens (deprived, however, of their citizenship) around the world.
The failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016 in Turkey and the infamous Reichstag fire in Germany in 1933 had many similarities, with both allowing the leaders of those countries to amass more power to oppress their opposition, journalist Can Dündar said in his commentary for German Radio Cosmo on Thursday.
In remarks that fueled suspicions even further that the Turkish government was involved in a failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Thursday that July 15 was a “project” he did not like or approve of.
Gökhan Açıkkollu, a history teacher suffering from diabetes, died of torture in police custody as part of a post-coup investigation into Turkey’s Gülen group. He was found innocent one-and-a-half years later and “reinstated” to his job a year later.
Gulen claimed that [Erdogan turn against Hizmet and accuse it of plotting the failed coup] because he had refused Erdogan’s appeal to use the domestic and international Hizmet network as a propaganda tool to present himself as leader of Islam, at home and abroad. “But Hizmet rejected him and so Erdogan was angry,” Gulen said.
Gulen movement supporters who have been persecuted or who fear persecution in their home country due to an association with the movement should qualify for a grant of asylum in the U.S. on the basis of both religion and political opinion. Even those who are not closely associated with the movement, but who fear persecution because the government falsely accuses them of involvement, should have strong cases for asylum.
Dr. Kadir Akyuz of University of Bridgeport, CT, USA has carried out a poll to find out who the general public believe was behind the bloody coup attempt in July 2915. According to his results, opposition does not believe the Gulen movement but it was conspired by the “deadly combo” of Tayyip Erdogan and Dogu Perincek.
HRW report: “People continued to be arrested and remanded to pretrial custody on terrorism charges, with at least 50,000 remanded to pretrial detention and many more prosecuted since the failed coup. Those prosecuted include journalists, civil servants, teachers and politicians as well as police officers and military personnel. Most were accused of being followers of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen. Their charge often lacked compelling evidence of criminal activity.”