Pro-government media manipulates facts about Turks in the US

In an effort to defame the Hizmet movement and Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, the pro-government media in Turkey continues to fabricate news and distort facts, particularly about those residing in the US close to where Gülen lives.

The pro-government A Haber channel and the Takvim daily, which have for long been waging a smear campaign against the movement, recently disseminated lies about Turks living in the same area as Gülen in Pennsylvania.

These two media outlets argued that Kemal Özgür, who is known to have close ties to Gülen, and his wife, Leyla Lynne Özgür, are Christians and were sent on a mission to Africa. Denying the reports, Özgür said his wife has been a Muslim since 1989 and visited Mecca in 2012. He also noted that the photos used in the reports were randomly selected from the Internet.

Özgür told Today's Zaman the property on which Gülen is currently residing is a camping area that is part of a foundation to teach children Islam and Turkish culture. He said when the property was purchased, the Cumhuriyet daily had called it a “shariah camp,” while the pro-government media is now portraying it as a Christian camp.

“My wife wrote a book in 1998 on the unchanging nature of slander against Fethullah Gülen. We are in 2014 and nothing has changed. Similar allegations are ongoing,” Özgür said in reaction to the fabricated news.

The pro-government media also claimed that Salih Dinçer, a Turk who has been living in the US for 40 years, had changed his name after becoming a US citizen. Dinçer denied having changed his name. He also noted that he is happy with the moral development of his children in Hizmet-affiliated schools in face of false assumptions about the institutions.

Sait Önal, who was reported to be the founder of over 100 Turkish schools and to have owned a private jet, said he has been working as an executive in a multinational company for 18 years and that a photo of him traveling in a private jet was taken during a business trip and was used by the pro-government media to create the impression that people affiliated with the Hizmet movement lead lavish lives.

He also denied claims stating that he has business ties with Gülen's relatives. Önal said the arguments employed by the pro-government media are similar to those of anti-Turkey lobbies.

Sezai Sablak, who the media claimed had doctored certain voice recordings from the US, said he is a computer engineer and is not skilled in manipulating recordings. He said he has nothing to do with the leaked voice recordings in Turkey.

Published on Today's Zaman, 27 March 2014, Thursday